Mylex Corp has found a buyer for the Network Power and Light thin server division it decided to close down almost a year ago (CI No 3,462), but now says it plans to retain a financial stake in the operation. Last month, the company formed a joint venture with Germany’s Lobster Computer Concept GmbH, a subsidiary of Berlin-based Lobster Technology Holding AG. Based in Berlin, the new venture will be called LXCO Technologies AG, and will develop and market network attached storage devices. Lobster has acted as a master distributor for Mylex in Germany for a number of years.
Mylex gets a 19% stake in the new venture in exchange for transferring intellectual property and technology from the discontinued Network Power & Light operations. It also gets the option of increasing its ownership in LXCO up to 45% at any time after October 1 1999 for no additional consideration.
NP&L was founded by RAID controller and disk array manufacturer Mylex in 1996, but two years later the company had to close it down, in order to meet its near term profitability goal. It says the new venture will allow it to continue to participate in the emerging storage appliance market, through partnership with Lobster. The first product from the new company is expected to be out by the end of the year.
