Sources on Wall Street and in the industry say that Apollo Computer Inc has privately let it be known that it would welcome an investor capable of giving it a large infusion of cash, according to InformationWeek – and the betting is that any buyer that emerges will be Japanese. The two companies named as possible investors are NEC Corp and Mitsubishi Electric, and an investment by a Japanese partner is seen as a means not only to give the workstation builder the additional working capital it needs, but shore it up against the possibility that it will be the vic tim of a hostile bidder. If it is faced with a hostile bid, Apollo, which reported combined losses of over $10m for its most recent two quarters, could seek refuge from one of big OEM customers, with Sie mens AG the one with the deepest pockets. Meantime Apollo’s biggest single OEM customer, Mentor Graph ics Corp, which this month extended its relationship with Apollo with a further $100m of business over 18 months, wants to reduce its depend ence on Apollo by finding a comple mentary workstation from another supplier, and is reportedly looking at offerings from IBM – the RT pre sumably, although possibly the 9370 – from Sun Microsystems, and DEC.
APOLLO SEEKS BIG INVESTOR; MENTOR A SECOND SOURCE
