Seattle OS, the Pick Systems Inc subsidiary that sells Pick software to run on the IBM RT, is to be absorbed into its parent following the departure of three of the Bellevue, Washington based company’s top management, including founder and president James Whelan. Seattle’s BluePick software enables the RT to be used as a multi-user Pick-based system, and IBM itself recently signed for exclusive distribution rights for the Australian market, where Pick is second only to undrinkably cold beer and unwatchable soaps in the popularity stakes. Pick Systems is believed to see the RT as a major growth area for future Pick sales: Seattle OS reportedly sold around 150 systems in the US last year, and double that number in the rest of the world. The company has operated autonomously from Pick Systems Inc since it was taken over last year, but will from now on be operated as a division of Irvine, California-based Pick Systems, and will be run by Pick’s vice- president and general manager, Steven Kruse.
