Conner Peripherals Inc was stunned when its 20% shareholder Compaq Computer Corp shunned its disk drives in favour of cheaper ones from Quantum Corp for Compaq’s new budget machines, and now the divorce is complete. Conner is to buy back the 11.6m shares held by Compaq at $20.75 per share, the closing price on July 28 – and as Compaq paid two tranches of $6m each for the shares, it will record a handsome pre-tax gain of some $80m on the deal and will spend it on its own shares.
