Venture capital start-up Niche Technology, established last year to develop hardware and software using the Inmos Transputer, has sold off its UK arm following financial difficulties. The company’s Bristol-based operation has been acquired for an unspecified sum by its UK distributor, Transtech Devices Ltd of Penn, Buckinghamshire in a deal signed last week, after Niche ran into venture capital funding difficulties. Niche was the sister company of Niche Data Systems Inc, Houston, Texas, producing Transputer-based solutions for Sun Microsystems workstations, and began trading in August 1987. Transtech has acquired all Niche’s UK assets, including its product line and most of its staff, with the exception of former president Ian Pearson. All of Niche’s current trading agreements are included in the deal, and Transtech hopes to launch new Transputer-based hardware and software products aimed at the high end of the market. A deal with Niche in the US to continue the development and production of Transputer systems is imminent according to Transtech’s Mike Cahill, who described the takeover of Niche UK as merely a hiccup in Niche’s research and development programme – which is set to continue under the auspices its new owner. Niche in the US, however, appears to be having its own problems: a spokesman declined to comment, except to say that the company is looking closely at its sources of funding.
