Merisel sees opportunities abroad despite toughening price situation.

Markets for microcomputer products are growing vigorously abroad, but prices are squeezed nearly as ruthlessly as here in America, according to wholesaling sources interviewed in Los Angeles last week.

The tiny Latin American market for microcomputers and other information technology is stampeding out of the blocks, according to officials at market research firm International Data Corp. The region's annual purchases should climb 90 percent by 1995 to $9.4 billion, compared with Asia/Pacific's 62 percent increase to $126 billion, Canada's 50 percent hike and about 42 percent in both Europe and America.

The sales picture abroad is bleakest for those making personal computers and other hardware, already slammed by steep price cuts, said Peter Burris, a market research director for IDC. But for the more intellectual products, such as services to integrate systems or to train and support users, revenue growth will be bright through 1995, he predicted.

Foreign sales are key for many microcomputer companies in Los Angeles and across America that today often look abroad for one-quarter to one-half of their revenues.

Burris spoke to securities analysts and the press last week at a week-long conference in Manhattan Beach, hosted by Merisel Inc. The $1.5 billion-in-sales computer-products distributor, which does one-third its business abroad, had flown in all its foreign managers for a first-ever global strategy meeting.

The El Segundo company's foreign managers sell the wares of 700 American manufacturers to 50,000 retailing outfits around the world and enjoy a bird's eye view of industry trends. Last week they briefed representatives from the L.A. computer community, from manufacturing consultants to financiers.

Fresh on everyone's minds was how foreign markets are responding to the worldwide free-fall in computer-product prices. Merisel executives said the U.S. drop of 30-40 percent is generally mirrored abroad, but is hitting 50 percent in Australia and a few other markets.

Typically, they said, foreigners demand prices as low as in America, although selling costs abroad are often higher. In turn, that clobbers margins for American manufacturers or software publishers.

"Prices are still coming down fast, and it's affecting everybody, worldwide," said Liz Buyer, computer securities analyst with T. Rowe Price in Baltimore. She and several Merisel managers said most manufacturers and some software publishers faced steep cost-cutting or extinction.

The price vice is further taking from manufacturers their traditional power to set trends, and shifting it to sellers and wholesalers like Merisel, said Burris. By offering services historically done by manufacturers, like product support, wholesalers "are going to be in a position to set or dictate modes of behavior," he said.

For instance, Merisel last year set up a discount sales channel in America, prompted by the now voracious mass-market buyer. Dell Computer Corp. and Compaq Computer Corp. introduced super-discount PC lines last month to satisfy the new demand. And downstream, foreign retailers are waking up to K-mart-type warehouse stores.

In Britain, two "superstore" discount houses sprang up within the last year, and mail ordering is becoming much more important there, said Merisel Managing Director for Europe Thomas P. Reeves.