Apart from Gary Klesch, no serious names have been mentioned in connection with the sale of Ing C Olvetti & Co SpA’s personal computer business. And Olivetti’s claim that it was about to sell the business for perhaps $320m was shown up for the desperate ploy it was on Friday when the company refused comment on a newspaper report that Acer Inc was in talks to buy the business – only to have its refusal to comment shown up as a desperate clutching of straws when Acer later stepped up to say that it was not interested. There have been no discussions specific to buying the PC business, Aldo Grech, Acer Italy country manager told Reuters. Acer does have a long-term relationship with Olivetti and is at times an OEM supplier. It is hard to see anyone taking the personal computer business off Olivetti’s hands without a handsome dowry to go with it – a dowry that would need to exceed the cost of closing it down. In the meantime Olivetti workers were exacerbating their position even further by staging an eight-hour strike on Friday to press for a what union leaders have called a credible restructuring plan and to seek undertakings from the government to support the Italian information technology sector. All the life put back into the Olivetti share price has drained out of them and they sank 2.39% back to their 466 lire low.
