Brightstar Corp. is a Miami-based wireless services company that started as a small distributor of cell phones in Latin America but has grown tremendously over 14 years. It has consistently ranked in the top 10 of the HispanicBusiness 500 since 2001 and was number one in 2010 with $4.6 billion in revenues. Brightstar filed for an initial public offering to raise $300 million and intends to list on the Nasdaq stock exchange. The company was founded in 1997 and has expanded globally, now operating in 50 countries with over 3,500 employees.

1. 34 HISPANIC BUSINESS | JUNE 2011 www.hispanicbusiness.com
I
n the space of 14 years, Brightstar
Corp. of Miami, No. 1 on the 2011
HispanicBusiness 500, has gone from
a small-time distributor of cell phones
for the Latin American market to a wire-
less services company “at the center of the
wireless ecosystem,” as the company likes
to say.
Since its HB500 debut at No. 8 in
2001, Brightstar has never left the top 10.
The only year since 2002 that it wasn't in
the No. 1 or No. 2 spot was 2004, when
it slipped to No. 3—despite earning $400
million more than it did the year before.
After revenues tumbled considerably
in 2009, Brightstar returns to the top with
a meteoric gain of $1.8 billion to bring
2010 revenues to $4.6 billion. That would
have been enough to bump Cognizant
Technology Solutions out of the No. 484
spot on the Fortune 500 if Brightstar were
a publically traded company.
Brightstar is taking steps to rectify
that. The company filed its Form S-1 in
April, preliminary to an initial public
offering, and promptly went into a quiet
period. No interviews, not even off the
record. Brightstar intends to raise up to
$300 million and list on Nasdaq under
the ticker symbol STAR, according to
Renaissance Capital, with the deal being
underwritten by Goldman Sachs and J.P.
Morgan. Citing “market conditions and
certain other factors,” Brightstar with-
drew a previous IPO in October 2004.
In the meantime, Forbes magazine
listed Brightstar as the 154th-largest
privately held company in 2010.
A History of Success
R. Marcelo Claure, chairman and CEO,
launched Brightstar in 1997. The com-
pany earned $14 million in its first three
months of operations, picked up a $2 mil-
lionloanfromOceanBankinMiami,and
found a ready market for Motorola prod-
uctsinLatinAmericabygoingwhereoth-
erdistributorscouldn’t—orwouldn’t—go.
Mr.Claure,thesonofaBoliviandiplomat,
was just 26 at the time.
Brightstar became Motorola’s master
services distributor in Latin America
in 2001, and the world’s largest wire-
less phone distribution and solutions
company in 2002, as HispanicBusiness
magazine wrote in 2007. Brightstar hit
the billion-dollar mark in 2003, with
revenues of $1.3 billion, and nearly
doubled that within two years. In 2005 it
expanded into India and Australia, and
passed the 1,000-employee mark.
May 2006 saw the formation of
Brightec, a joint venture with United
Arab Emirates-based Aptec, operating
in UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Turkey,
Egypt and Lebanon. In August, Mitsui &
Co. Ltd. invested $50 million and took a
seat on Brightstar’s board of directors.
In 2007, Brightstar announced a global
distribution agreement with Motorola. It
became the largest independent distribu-
tor of cell phones in its Latin American
markets and one of the largest in the U.S.
Some of the sheen wore off in 2008,
when revenues dipped 2.35 percent
to $3.57 billion, but that was still good
enoughtoreachNo.1onthe2009HB500.
The next year saw a dramatic slump of
22 percent, bringing the company’s 2009
revenues down to $2.8 billion.
“Because we … took proactive steps to
reduce costs, we were actually more profit-
able in 2009 than in 2008,” Mr. Claure told
HispanicBusiness magazine at the time.
Its rank on the 2010 HB500? No. 2.
Branching Out
Brightstar now operates in 50 countries
on every continent but Antarctica, and
employs more than 3,500 people. Its
board of directors includes former high-
ranking officers from Motorola, Morgan
Stanley and Goldman Sachs, as well as
the CEO of the Cisneros Group.
The company has branched out from
distribution to focus on services ranging
from manufacturing and assembly to
portfolio management.
BellsAreRinging
Afteramajorslumplastyear,theperennialHB500wonderkidisbackwithbigpotentialnews.
by BROOS CAMPBELL, Staff Writer
Brightstar Corp. CEO and Chairman
R. Marcelo Claure
PhotocourtesyofBrightstarCorp.
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