Wang Laboratories Inc is set to win its discharge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today – just 13 months after it filed. The company’s strategy will be to generate cash from continuing to maintain and support its still large – 35,000-strong – but ageing customer base, and use the cash to build up and exploit its imaging and office automation software, hoping that attrition of the hardware base is stately enough that the software business can stand on its own feet before it vanishes. It gets a head start by emerging from bankruptcy with almost no debt, and now employs just 6,200 people, down from 31,500 in 1988. One dark cloud over what should have been a happy day is that the American Exchange in New York has continued to trade Wang’s shares, and they have been changing hands at many times their true value; they now represent only warrants to buy new Wang shares at some time in the future, and those warrants are expected to trade for only a few cents – a nickel or so.
