In a move that seems to hand the South African mainframe market over to Hitachi Ltd, IBM has reportedly decided to pull out completely from the Republic’s market when its current agreement to supply its successor company there runs out at the end of this year. IBM withdrew from direct involvement from South Africa at the end of 1986 when it established a company there for the benefit of the 1,300 employees of the $200m-a-year very profitable business, agreeing to supply equipment on an exclusive basis for a minimum of three years, and spares for five (CI No 546). A year later, the successor company, Information Management Services Pty joined forces with one of the two local marketers of Hitachi mainframes, Reunert Computers Pty, 80%-owned by Barlow Rand Ltd, merging to form Technology Systems International Ltd (CI No 780). Hitachi said that it would not step up exports to South Africa to plug the gap left by IBM’s departure, but most observers take that commitment with a large grain of salt. IBM is expected to ship $300m of equipment to South Africa this year, but has reportedly assured officials of Dade County, Florida, which is in the market for a large amount of computer equipment and operates a black-list of companies that sell in South Africa that it will not renew the contract provided Dade County leaves it off its blacklist.
