The runaway success of Compaq Computer Corp and Dell Computer Corp has overshadowed lesser efforts in the still cutthroat personal computer business, and NEC Corp’s additional $285m investment in its Packard-Bell NEC Inc arm is seen by many as a sign that things aren’t going so well at the company. NEC says the extra money will be used to fund the new effort to build up a direct sales effort, announced recently (CI No 3,185); NEC spent $170m on its original 19.9% stake back in 1995 (CI No 2,700), just slightly more than Compagnie des Machines Bull SA’s 19.85% stake. Bull’s stake includes the merger of Zenith Data Systems into Packard Bell, and just to make it more complex still, NEC owns 17% of Bull. For the extra money, NEC receives extra non- voting preferred shares but keeps its ordinary equity stake the same.
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