McDonnell Douglas Corp has given up on its idea of floating its McDonnell Douglas Information Systems International Ltd Pick and Pick-under-Unix business on the London International Stock Exchange, and instead has agreed in principle to sell it to a group of investors headed by Baring Capital Investors Ltd within the month. Terms of the agreement […]
McDonnell Douglas Corp has given up on its idea of floating its McDonnell Douglas Information Systems International Ltd Pick and Pick-under-Unix business on the London International Stock Exchange, and instead has agreed in principle to sell it to a group of investors headed by Baring Capital Investors Ltd within the month. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Originally structured around the old Microdata Pick-compatible systems business, with input from the UK end of the Computer Machinery Co Inc, a key-to-disk systems manufacturer that self-destructed in a Big Bang, the Hemel Hempstead company is now primarily a systems integrator, software and services company, buying its hardware from the likes of Encore Computer Corp. Such manufacturing as it still does is done in Hemel, but about 70% of hardware sales are now of kit bought OEM. It employs about 1,800, 1,300 here in the UK, and also operates in continental Europe and the Pacific Rim. It has been profitable on annual turnover of about GBP180m – $270m – over the past few years.
