There’s more to making it in the tough US personal computer market than being a canny Korean and buying a US computer company: you need to start with a good US computer company with a respected name – as Daewoo Telecom Ltd has found to its cost. It is to sell its US sales subsidiary, Leading Edge Products Inc, which it bought out of bankruptcy in 1989 (CI No 1,118). It was never said how much Daewoo paid, but the cost was mainly taking care of creditors. It is now selling the company to Manuhold Investment AG of Switzerland for $27m. Since we took over the US firm in 1989, we have suffered from losses as a result of slow economy in the US and hot price competition of personal computers, it told Reuters, declining to elaborate. But it does not mean that we will pull out of the US market. It will focus on core items including notebook computers, for which the company has competitiveness, Daewoo said. Daewoo is still negotiating with Texas Instruments to sell it 100,000 notebooks OEM.It is also talking to Automation Source Corp and Liberty Pty Ltd about notebeooks.
