Flash memory is a tough market to crack, and the loss-making Israeli company M-Systems Flash Disk Pioneers Ltd has decided it must concentrate full time on its core markets. Tel-Aviv-based M- Systems is re-structuring, and plans to sell off its non-core, non-flash data strorage disk operations in Taiwan to shareholders of C-One Technology Corp, a Taipei-based company it acquired in February 1997 for $8.6m (CI No 3,093). C-One will transfer its Flash-related technologies to a newly-incorporated company, M- Systems Asia Ltd, wholly-owned by M-Systems, and then concentrate on its other business. M-Systems had been looking for a way to divest itself of the rest of C-One for some time. Through the new deal, it hopes to dilute its stake in C-One to less than 20%. If the amount raised is not enough to achieve this, M-Systems has an agreement to exchange the additional C-One shares it own for shares in M-Systems at a rate of one C-One share for 0.11 M-Systems shares.After two years it has the option of offloading all its remaining shares at the same rate.
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