With Granada Group Plc’s third party computer maintenance business bloated with the acquisition of DPCE Plc and no doubt now wanting to flesh out its micro support end further, and Bell Atlantic Corp adopting the mien of a snapper up of unconsidererd trifles and stomping all over Europe looking for maintenance businesses, Thorn EMI Plc feels itself under some pressure to increase the gravitas of its Computeraid unit: we hear that the company has one or two targets in its sights, all quoted, and that a kind of hush descends when the name DDT Plc is mentioned; Apricot Computers Plc has 13% of DDT and would like to buy the company, in which the principles have a substantial stake and are under pressure to perform, but Thorn’s fire-power is so much greater that Apricot would likely be a seller of its 13% at a moderate profit; other possibles for Computeraid are manufacturing companies that are so troubled that their biggest asset is their maintenance business, and in that context, two display manufacturers, Cifer Plc and Pericom Plc spring to mind; more intriguing is Kode International Plc, which has several interests Thorn would likely not want, but as well as a unique disk drive repair business which operates on the continent as well as here, it has circuit board making operations that might find favour.
