What remains of Wang Laboratories Inc, following the sale in March this year of its imaging software business to Eastman Kodak for $260m, is a cash rich but vastly slimmed down outfit specializing in integrated services for network and desktop computing. The company is now profitable again, and the latest results for the year to June 30 show profits of $69.9m against losses of $600,000 last year with revenue climbing 25.1% to $1.27bn. The imaging software business looked for a while to be the only really useful technology the company had left after the demise of its VS minicomputer business. But with this now sold to Kodak, chief executive Joseph M Tucci has abandoned this market and is hell bent on building Wang into a network management company, forging recent partnerships with Cisco Systems Inc, Microsoft Corp, and desktop computer makers like Dell and Compaq Computer Corp, enabling Wang to supply its customers with a range of products while working in tandem with the big boys. At the end of June, Wang still had a cash pile of $242m having paid off its remaining debts, and Tucci will be spending hard on acquisitions to complement Wang’s new focus and fulfill his promise to shareholders of once again making Wang a growth company.
