Having taken aim at its most powerful competitor in the computer leasing business, Comdisco Inc (CI No 1,599), Stamford, Connecticut-based IBM Credit Corp last week entered similar lawsuits against two Massachusetts add-on memory suppliers, Cambex Corp, Waltham and EMC Corp, Hopkinton. IBM Credit is seeking an order to stop the companies from engaging in conversion and misuse of computer products owned by IBM Credit. The suits allege that Cambex and EMC are engaged in a continuing practice of taking IBM Credit’s property and using it as if they themselves owned it. IBM Credit alleges that Cambex and EMC have been stripping computers owned by itself of valuable memory and other parts. The companies then re-lease or transfer the IBM Credit property, in many cases, in competition with IBM and IBM Credit, the suit claims. These practices critically undermine the security of basic asset ownership, complained IBM Credit president Harry Kavetas. Credit markets lend on the assumption that one’s assets are whole and that legal title is maintained. But because of these unlawful activities, IBM Credit typically cannot even locate the assets that have fallen into Cambex’s and EMC’s hands. Nor can we generally identify the individuals who perhaps mistakenly believe they have clear title to the machines they think they own. The suit presumably relates to instances in which Cambex and EMC have provided customers with memory upgrades on 3090 mainframes where the upgrade has involved replacing some IBM memory with higher capacity memory boards made by the two companies. Cambex had no immediate comment on the suit, which reached it late Friday, but said that it was preparing a statement; EMC had not returned calls by press-time last night.
