Siemens AG now has definitive agreement to pay Intertechnique SA $54.7m for 51.7% of IN2, Intertechnique Informatique SA – and outside shareholders will be offered the same price, although Siemens hopes enough will hang on to their shares to enable the company to retain its quote. Intertechnique is to retain about 20%, about 10% is in the hands of employees, and the other near 20% is traded on the Paris Bourse. IN2 had net profits of $4.5m on sales of $173m from its 68030-based Pick machines and its Leanord line of MS-DOS personal computers, 16% of the business done outside France, mainly in Spain and Belgium, although it also has outlets in Switzerland, Italy and here in the UK. Like the Pick-poppers this side of the Channel, the company is strongest in the public administration and health markets. Siemens says it intends to merge the marketing network of IN2 with its own French marketing operations, and give IN2 access to its other mini- and microcomputer product lines. Siemens Data Systems returned to France about five years ago, having lost its entire marketing network there when its former partner Compagnie Internationale de l’Informatique was merged with Honeywell Bull SA in 1976. Its main business in France since has been mainframes and peripherals.
