Insisting that nothing at all about the future of its Quantel and Solid State Logic units should be inferred from the move, Carlton Communications Plc yesterday said it would sell its Abekas Video Systems unit to printing systems specialist Scitex Corp Ltd of Herzliya, Israel for $52m cash. Following Scitex’s acquisition of ImMIX in September last year, they approached us to purchase Abekas, June de Moller, managing director of Carlton said. This is an obvious fit for them and, with Abekas’s trading conditions improving, they have offered us an attractive price. In the six months to March 31, 1995, Abekas had revenues of $27.3m and trading profits of $400,000, Carlton said. We remain committed to investing in our other product companies, which are led by the highly successful and profitable Quantel and Solid State Logic, June de Moller said. Abekas’s sales in the year ending this month are expected to amount to $55m to $57m; it designs and sells digital video equipment to television stations and video editing studios. The purchase is part of Scitex’s strategy of reaching annual sales of $100m in the digital video sector, it commented.
