Threat of third-party bids was one of the factors motivating the management buy-out of Thorn EMI Software, admitted chairman Mike Smith at a press meeting on Friday. Thorn EMI Plc has become more and more focused on its large core activities, such as the music business, Smith explained. Consequently, over the last year or so, a number of companies from the UK, the continent, the US and the Far East have been sniffing around, it seems, hoping to snap up the Software arm when Thorn EMI finally made the drop. Mike Smith and the board of Thorn EMI Software were not about to let the software business be passed over to just anyone, and so proposals for the management buy-out were put forward to Thorn, receiving approval at the end of May. Data Sciences Ltd, as the newly-independent software and services company is to be called (CI No 1,724), won’t be undergoing any structural changes, since the company had just completed a two-year reorganisation programme, which involved 150 job losses. The board and staff will keep the same positions, and the company will follow the strategy it had just put in position, which includes a European expansion programme. The Data Centre Services division has been the largest source of revenue – it turned over UKP46m in 1990. This section, which employs 670 staff, handles facilities management, disaster recovery and distribution, with customers including Cambridge County Council, Nationwide Anglia and the HFC Bank. The Defence and Scientific division, which has 575 employees and contributed UKP43m last year, focuses on long-term consultancy and management contracts. Thorn EMI Software’s largest ever contract, an office automation project for the UK Ministry of Defence worth UKP30m, came under this division. The Finance and Business Systems division, which turned over UKP18m last year, employs 250 staff and focuses on dealing room systems and taxation software. The German Thorn EMI Software GmbH, which has 90 staff and does a bit of everything, with customers including Volkswagen, contributed UKP3m in 1990, and the 160-strong Thorn EMI Software BV in Holland, which is reported to be growing fast, added UKP9m, with customers including Rotterdam Harbour, for which the Software company is managing shipping schedules. Mike Smith envisages that Data Sciences will go public in two to three years, when market conditions have improved.
