Network Computing Devices Inc appears to have run out of ideas and has called in PaineWeber Inc to advise it on where it can go from here; sale of the company and alliance strategies top a list of possible alternatives. The company declined to elaborate.
NCD began life as a maker of terminals for running X-Windows applications. When that market dried up it turned to making thin clients and software to connect multiple clients and secured a contract to build IBM Corp’s Network Stations. But, as the thin client and network computer market morphs into appliance and Windows terminal products, NCD has found itself in competition with a slew of similarly troubled manufacturers and ISVs with more advanced software solutions.
It recently started giving away its ThinPath Plus application, which runs on Windows terminals and PCs, for free. The software supports Windows audio input and output, and local parallel and serial port connectivity for PCs and Windows terminals for attaching local printers, scanners, and other input/output devices. It has other Unix and Java applications, but NCD admitted its software business all but dried up in 1998.
Intel took a 4% stake last year for $10m to seal a deal to build ‘lean client’ systems and, when NCD bought Tektronix Inc’s thin client business at the beginning of this year, it claimed it would be able to put together the best product line in the industry. The market for these types of clients simply hasn’t materialized, partly because the cost of PCs themselves has sunk through the floor. NCD has about 400 employees and reported a first-quarter net loss of $2.0m on revenue down 13.8% at $26.4m, up from a loss of $489,000.
