NEC Corp has decided to take up its rights in the grand Compagnie des Machines Bull SA recapitalisation, and will invest another $65m to maintain its 4.43% stake in the floundering company. In return for its additional investment, NEC gets agreement from Bull that the French company will favour NEC in colour thin film transistor liquid crystal displays, and application-specific and memory chips, and will help NEC with sales of automated fingerprint systems and very small aperture terminal satellite earth stations in the Commonwealth of Independent States and other former Comecon countries, where Bull has long-established bases. The collaboration on DPS 9000 and DPS 7000 mainframe hardware – now mostly built by NEC – and software will of course continue.
