Compagnie des Machines Bull SA, which said in September that it would soon announce an alliance with a large information technology company, has now confirmed a report in La Tribune de l’Expansion that Digital Equipment Corp and Hewlett-Packard Co are among several companies with which it is in talks about forging an alliance. The only part of Bull’s hardware business that has serious prospects for growth is the Unix systems business, where it the company is a supporter of the Advanced Computing Environment initiative and already offers machines bought OEM from MIPS Computer Systems Inc. DEC is one of the leading ACE supporters; Bull, DEC and Hewlett-Packard are all sponsor members of Open Software Foundation.
