Several of the Bells rushed to form computer retail chains as soon as they were untied from Ma Bell’s apron strings, but already two of them are thinking better of it: Bell Atlantic is getting out of the business altogether, and last week Pacific Telesis sold seven of its stores. CompuCom Systems Inc, Cherry Hill, New Jersey, yesterday announced it had agreed in principle to buy substantially all the net assets and operations of Bell Atlantic’s Dallas-based CompuShop Inc for a combination of cash, notes and CompuCom shares. CompuShop, which already sold four stores to Computer Factory Inc, now has 16 across the US. CompuCom expects the combination to have annual sales of around $200m; it is 57% owned by Safeguard Scientifics Inc. And last week, retailer Computer Factory of Elmsford, New York bought seven of the stores in the chain built up with such high hopes by the Pactel Infosystems arm of Pacific Telesis: it is taking five stores in the Los Angeles area and two in San Francisco. Two of the CompuShops were in Washington and one each in San Jose and Chicago. Terms of the pact, which expands the chain to 58 stores, were not disclosed.
