In what would be a rather bigger disposal than the mooted sale of the disk and related manufacturing units to Quantum Corp, and would call into question the plunge by other large manufacturers into the business, Digital Equipment Corp is also discussing sale of its consulting and systems integration operations to Computer Sciences Corp, the Wall Street Journal reported. But the parties aren’t yet close to a deal, one insider said, and it isn’t known what price is being asked for the unit, which has annual turnover of some $1,500m. Neither side would comment.Computer Sciences began targeting commercial computer consulting and systems integration seven years ago, looking for a complement to its big international contracts with government and other public sector bodies, and has built it into a $1,360m business in the year to April 1. The DEC business is seen as giving it the springboard into Europe and Asia, where it is still weak. The paper notes that the company said total consulting revenue was $2,500m in the year to July 3 1993, and hears that DEC packaged a large part of the business, with 10,000 employees and $1,500m in annual revenue, and offered it for sale in early May.
