Esprit Systems Inc, Melville, New York, has not had a very happy time of it since it was created in 1983 by a management buyout of the terminals division Hazeltine Corp, but this week the company won a vote of confidence from ADI Corp of Taiwan, the company that now owns 57% of Esprit’s shares, and makes all its display terminals. ADI has granted Esprit $6m in trade finance to replace the company’s senior bank debt and provides it with what Esprit describes as much needed relief from loan limitations and interest rate presssures imposed upon it by the bank. The trade financing agreement gives Esprit credit to buy terminals for inventory and direct customer shipment. The new financing agreement with ADI strengthens Esprit’s ability to meet its present and future commitments to customers and is further evidence of ADI Corp continued confidence in and commitment to Esprit. The agreement follows the introduction of three new terminals by Esprit, each providing advanced personal computer like features. The PICTerm CBG enables resellers and OEM customers to provide users with advanced windowing, colour and business graphics. The Esprit Lan Term enables users to run MS DOS software an a high quality peripheral and the Opus 3n1 can connect to hosts that support ASCII, ANSI, and PC-Term character sets. Esprit also offers an Esprit Express 24-hour replacement service, and an OEM Profit Assurance Plan, a just-in-time system that cuts the need for warehousing by integrators.
