One of France’s two popular political satire puppet shows, Les Guignols des Infos, reiterated the government’s announcement last week that it would pri-vatise Compagnie des Machines Bull SA. As one puppet leans over to inspect the Bull logo, the anchorman puppet intones that investors should be aware that, among every few prize privatisations, is a…TRAP, just as what is now revealed as a Bull logo/mousetrap slams down on the unsuspecting puppet’s neck. Ironic a couple of days later to see Gerard Longuet telling the Japanese that there is no limit to NEC’s participation in Bull. The era of Japan-bashing that characterised Edith Cresson’s tenure has certainly come to a screeching halt. While calling the idea of NEC Corp taking ownership of Bull just a calculated theory, Armand Malka, vice-president of Bull’s Unix Systems Division, told Computergram that he did not believe it would affect Bull’s Power RISC strategy. NEC does not have enough presence in the Unix workstation and server market in either the US or Europe to offer an alternative product stategy. I don’t think it would call it into question; the PowerPC is too strong. If anything, it would probably cause NEC to ask itself some questions, he said. Malka stopped short of predicting that becoming owner of a Power RISC adherent would cause NEC to abandon the MIPS Technologies Inc chips it fabricates and uses in its systems. There is a real developing market for cheaper RISC processors like the R4000 and even the predecessor, from games companies like Nintendo and Sega, for example, he said. If NEC doesn’t bite, it will not be easy to find another buyer. Among the potential candidates quoted by La Tribune-Defosses, only Electronic Data Systems Corp and ICL Plc expressed any possible interest, and then only in bits of the company. Ing C Olivetti & Co SpA and Siemens AG held out a no comment. By contrast, Hewlett-Packard Co, which vied with IBM Corp for the deal concluded two years ago, said: At that time, we had a complete plan for co-operation, but they didn’t want to go with us. We don’t repeat history. Someone at Intel Corp said, It would be like asking us to buy shares in Renault or AGF (an insurance company). Digital Equipment Corp said, We have a restructuring plan to complete and if we had to undertake external growth, it would be in buying complementary activities. Bull right now is a direct competitor.
