With Honeywell Inc out of the picture, a new American partner for Compagnie des Machines Bull SA is looking certain now, with Hewlett-Packard Co seen in Paris as the long odds-on favourite to take a small stake in the red ink-drenched mainframer as part of a deal that sees Bull dumping its MIPS Computer Systems Inc RISC developments in favour of a line built around the Precision Architecture RISC favoured by Hitachi Ltd, Mitsubishi Electric Corp and Samsung Electronics Co; the French government, which favours that kind of sleight of hand and financial chicanery, is also expected to reduce its direct stake in Machines Bull to 51% from 76%, but mainly only by persuading state-owned banks and insurance companies to put up new capital.
