Digital Equipment Corp is still finding things to sell off in its seemingly never-ending fire sale. Now, as anticipated (CI No 3,200) Genicom Inc has acquired DEC’s loss-making Printing Systems Business, becoming the exclusive supplier of Digital- branded printer systems. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports that an even bigger prize is up for sale: DEC’s networking equipment business which has annual revenues of around $600m. Genicom, a network integration company based in Chantilly, Virginia, has a multi-year agreement with DEC under which it assumes responsibility for the printing business though an in- sourcing program, aligning its operations as close to the inside of Digital as possible. Genicom is to hire selected DEC employees, acquire some assets and intellectual property, and gain access to DEC’s customer base. It will use the Digital logo and trademarks. Genicom, which acquired Texas Instruments Inc’s printer business last year (CI No 2,962), says it expects to see some $100m revenues from the deal, adding to its own current revenues of $300m. In the US, the deal is effective immediately, but the international transactions will take place over the next few months on a country by country basis. DEC currently has no buyer for the networking business, says the Journal, but did entertain a $1bn offer from Bain Capital at the end of last year. Since then its value has declined. Lucent Technologies Inc is also said to have taken a look at the unit. Sun Microsystems Inc and Cisco Systems Inc are two of the suggested candidates for the business.
