Ing C Olivetti & Co SpA has now sold a block of 5.6% of its ordinary shares to Digital Equipment Corp, bringing DEC’s holding in Olivetti to almost 10% and fulfilling the agreement concluded last year, which gives the Italian privileged access to DEC’s Alpha RISC. DEC paid well over the odds for the shares – Olivetti says that 28.53m shares were sold to DEC at 4,547.4 lire per share, which compared with a lowly 1,340 lire price in the market at the time of the transaction. DEC bought 4.03% on the original completion, and 1.89% on the open market last month.
