AT&T Corp, which decided to sell its AT&T Paradyne unit rather than include it with the Lucent Technologies Inc manufacturing spin-out (CI No 2,774), now has definitive agreement , via Lucent, to sell it to Texas Pacific Group Inc for an embarrassingly low $175m. The price is embarrassing because it highlights Paradyne as yet another in a long string of failed AT&T acquisitions – AT&T paid $250m for it in 1989. Paradyne now has annual sales of $275m, and the old business and the one being sold are not strictly comparable, because Lucent will retain the Paradyne data equipment service business that does $92m a year. Texas Pacific Group, based in San Francisco and Fort Worth, Texas, manages TPG Partners LP, a private Fort Worth investment partnership that has stakes in the airline, health care, food and drink, telephone and energy industries. The sale is expected to be completed in two to six weeks.
