Taipei, Taiwan — K.C. Liu, Advantech Computers Ltd.'s founder and ceo, recently announced its automation business will be established as a separate company—Advantech Automation Corp. (AAC). AAC will prepare for NASDAQ listing and an IPO expected in 2003. Its goal will be to achieve $150 million sales and $500 million market capitalization value by 2003. Mr. Liu adds four trends are increasingly driving business decisions: web technologies' growing domination of the factory; Ethernet's emergence as the most popular fieldbus; front-end devices containing embedded CPUs and web browsers; and a likely reshuffling of key players in the market. For example, Mike Rothwell, Advantech's Cincinnati-based product manager, recently introduced its web-enabled products—WebLink, WebView, and WebControl—along with a data gateway for serial-to-Ethernet communications. Advantech's Adam I/O series now has Ethernet communication capabilities. For more information, visit www.controleng.com/freeinfo.