After all the shouting, NEC Corp agreed to exchange its 15% of Bull HN Information Systems Inc for 4.7% of Compagnie des Machines Bull SA – and at the ruling share price of the tiny 7% of the company that is freely traded, that puts a value of just $14.7m on the stake; the UK and Italian subsidiaries will finally become one with the rest of Bull Europe SA and Bull HN will be responsible for North America and the Pacific; on the trading front, the company is doing even worse than it feared, with sales between 3% and 5% lower than projected, and it says that it will have to lay off even more than the 5,000 people planned to hit break even by 1992.
