Feeling a little anxious about the future of the London systems and software house Gordon & Gotch Computer Centre Ltd, its management has bought the business from its immediate past owner, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, for an undisclosed sum. Gotch’s three operating directors, with the help of six senior managers, put up the money themselves in an effort to rescue the company from neglect rather than from the more usual fears associated with Murdoch-ownership (unclad lovelies on the software manual pages that other companies simply stamp This page deliberately left blank). Apparently Gotch was being swallowed up in an ever-increasing chain of acquisitions which began with the Herald & Weekly Times buying Gotch in 1985 as part of a package, which was then itself bought by News Corp. A holding company was formed last year to buy the business from News Corp, and the managers have now bought Gordon & Gotch from this holding company. The company, based in London EC is primarily in systems and software for the financial, publishing and payroll markets, but also provides computer services on a Unisys A5 mainframe and is a reseller of the A-series machines. Turnover is running at about UKP4.5m a year. Why did Rupert Murdoch sell? He probably wasn’t aware he owned us, says Gotch.
