Today in the US and Europe – April 4 in Asia – AT&T Co is to announce who the new co-owners of Unix and Unix Systems Laboratories are. Eleven companies have bought a share, and Novell Inc is believed to have bought the largest single stake but exactly how much, is being kept secret as are the exact number of shares owned by all the others. However, no company was offered more than 4.8%. Other US companies buying in are Amdahl Corp, Motorola Inc and Sun Microsystems Inc, where AT&T has a 20% stake. The European companies are ICL Plc, and Ing C Olivetti & Co SpA. The Japanese co-owners include NEC Corp, Fujitsu Ltd, Toshiba Corp and Oki Electric Industry Co – plus one. As predicted, the Fujitsu-led contingent, which includes affiliates ICL and Amdahl, has garnered the largest combined block of stock, and since it will doubtless be voting in unison, the most influence, second only to AT&T’s. The sell-off is believed to represent over 20% of Unix Labs but not the full 30% it was shooting for – but that is likely to be reached with the 10% that has been earmarked for Unix Labs shareholders. With Unix Labs valued at $325m, AT&T should get over $65m in the sale. AT&T will retain six seats on the nine-member board of the company, effectively retaining control – but at least seven votes will be needed to effect any major changes.
