In early 1994, Eldec was about to be acquired by Crane Company. When the deal was done a lot of people were laid off, including our neighbor and friend, John Vicklund. This was a recurring pattern that had happened to other Snohomish County companies. I was irritated and asked various people for suggestions about what we could do to improve the life expectancy of Snohomish County companies. There were painfully few suggestions. Most regarded takeovers by outside companies as a fact of business life. I also asked Greg Heberlein at the Seattle Times why the Times had dropped its North Index, which had included 4 Snohomish County companies. He said that maintaining an index with only 6 companies was just too difficult. Greg is a friend, but I told him that he had said the wrong thing. He had put a challenge in front of me. From that challenge began the Abarim Snohomish County Stock Index. (ASCSI) The first problem was to identify Snohomish County companies which would qualify for such an index. No one knew exactly how many companies were in Snohomish County. Greg was the biggest help. I ultimately found 6 companies. The original 6 companies were: ATL, Carver Corp., Cascade Financial, CellPro, Fluke, and ICOS Corporation. On November 21, 1994 the Abarim Snohomish County Stock Index came into being. It was started as a promotional index intended to improve the visibility of Snohomish County companies. It has become a valid tool for measuring the progress of Snohomish County public companies.

The ASCSI's first press release came 3 months later; the Puget Sound Business Journal (PSBJ) was the first publication to carry information about the ASCSI. Rami Grunbaum at PSBJ gently poked fun at an index composed of only 6 companies, but the article also carried the names of all 6 companies. That was the 1st success. The ASCSI has grown and been featured elsewhere, including the Seattle Times, KRKO (1380) radio, the Everett Herald, the Edmonds Enterprise, the Eastside Journal, the Herald Business Journal, KOMO (1000) radio, and the Edmonds Beacon.

Because Snohomish County is in the shadow of Seattle and King County, the ASCSI provides an extra vehicle to give visibility to Snohomish County companies. It is our hope at Abarim that this small measure of additional publicity will help these companies grow and thrive. This hope has been justified. The number of companies in the index has changed over time and so have the rules for inclusion. The number of companies in Snohomish County and the market capitalization in Snohomish County continue to grow. ICOS Corporation, on February 28, 2000 became the first Snohomish County company to ever exceed $3 billion in market capitalization. There are now 3 companies in Snohomish County which have market capitalization over $1 billion each - Intermec is the 2nd, and Frontier Financial is the 3rd. Quite a change from the market capitalization of Snohomish County in November 1994, which totaled 800 million dollars for all 6 companies in the original index. Combined market capitalization stands at 8.5 bilion dollars on November 24, 2006.

Snohomish County has grown into a biotech/biomedical center, with the premier biotech company in the Northwest, Icos Corporation. Snohomish County has also become a regional community banking center, including 3 of the ACB/NASDAQ Index component banks out of a national index that has 545 component banks.With 3 banks in the index, Snohomish County has a larger number of banks in the index than any other county in the Northwest - King County, Multnomah County, and Spokane County each have only 2, and are the only other counties in the Northwest to have more than one.

As of November 24, 2006 11 companies compose the Abarim Snohomish County Stock Index. They are:

Cardiac Science

Cascade Financial

CityBank

Frontier Financial

ICOS Corporation

Intermec Inc

Nastech Pharmaceutical

Seattle Genetics

SonoSite

Sonus Pharmaceuticals

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