Tandon Corp, Chatsworth, California now has definitive agreement for the acquisition, for Tandon shares, of Atasi Corp, San Jose, California. Atasi is a privately held designer and manufacturer of high capacity 5.25 Winchester disk drives and brings Tandon advanced patented technology, a specialised engineering team and products that would have taken time and expense to develop. The Atasi drives range from 85Mb to 170Mb where Tandon’s presently stop at 50Mb. Tandon will pay 400,000 shares for Atasi, plus about $2.75m of Tandon stock for Atasi’s preferred shares. The deal is subject to Atasi shareholder approval. Atasi will be operated as a Tandon subsidiary, but its engineering, research and development will be combined with Tandon’s similar operations in San Jose. Production over time will be transferred from San Jose to Singapore. In conjunction with the acquisition, arrangements will be made to continue Atasi’s patent infringement lawsuit against Seagate Technology.
