IBM sterreich GmbH, Vienna, has acquired its first stake in an Austrian company. The company now owns 10% of Genesis Hardware Software GmbH – the remaining 90% is distributed between Dietmar Schwarzenbacher (50.9%), the sterreichische Lnderbank AG, which has been a shareholder in the company since it was established in 1988 (25.1%), Herbert Wagger (8%) and Walter Lamprecht (6%). According to IBM sterreich’s managing director Gert Riesenfelder, this move could be followed by other similar investments in top professional software house subsidiaries in Austria. The Genesis group – which, in addition to Genesis Hardware Software, comprises a personal computer supply business, and two marketing companies with a subsidiary in Germany – is expecting to accompany a return to the black by the year end with turnover in the region of $17m – a figure which it hopes to double by next year. The software subsidiary, says Computerwoche, has turned in sales figures the equivalent of $11m.
