It begins to look as if ambitious young companies are now much better served by Japanese sugar-daddies than by US venture capitalists, and the $50m of new cash from its majority shareholder Kubota Ltd for Ardent Computer Corp (CI No 1,191) follows similar largesse from their Japanese shareholders for Solbourne Computer Corp and Sanyo Icon Inc. The new cash more than double’s Kubota’s investment and will enable the maker of Titan graphics computers to bring out a line going from low-cost personal desktop supercomputer to a full-scale mini supercomputer setting a new price-performance point. The desktop product, says founder Allen Michels, will be aggressively priced to appeal to large volume OEM customers for whom the cost of high-performance computers has previously been prohibitive. About half the $50m will be in the form of equity financing this year, and the remainder will be provided in long-term loan and development agreements over the next several years. When the equity financing is completed next month, Kubota will hold a stake of about 44% in Ardent. Kubota has already invested $44m and the company also raised $13m in US venture capital in February 1986.
