Responding to IBM’s allegations that Comdisco has been producing counterfeit parts for IBM mainframe computers and then selling or leasing them to unsuspecting customers as genuine IBM-manufactured parts, Comdisco executive vice president Bob Bardagy acknowledged to the Wall Street Journal that his company did buy boards that were reconfigured as IBM said, but in few machines. IBM said it found the 100 boards in four mainframes and Bardagy said that Comdisco had knowingly used reconfigured boards in perhaps that many more machines. Comdisco began the practice in the summer of 1990 and stopped in January, when IBM objected. In an official statement Comdisco’s president Kenneth Pontikes said Comdisco views it as a travesty that it must engage its time, money and people defending itself against IBM’s further attempts to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt in the marketplace. The goal of IBM’s litigation strategies is to reduce competition and destroy the third part leasing market.
