IBM mainframe software products specialist Applied Data Research of Livingston, New Jersey could be about to change hands again. The company was bought by American Information Technologies Corp, Ameritech, the Chicago phone company a couple of years ago, but according to a report in the Chicago Tribune last week, Ameritech is likely to sell it to Fujitsu Ltd of Japan. Ameritech said it could neither confirm or deny rumours about acquisitions or divestitures. Ameritech’s decision to buy Ameritech was little understood, and no convincing explanation was ever given for why a phone company should want to own a mainframe software products company. But sale to a Japanese company would definitely cause controversy, and might well lead to a haemorrhage of senior personnel.