Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!bu-cs!buengc!art
From: art@buengc.BU.EDU (A. R. Thompson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.encore
Subject: Re: Informations about Encore in Europe
Message-ID: <2867@buengc.BU.EDU>
Date: 15 May 89 01:58:50 GMT
References: <2085@litp.UUCP> <442@gouldfr.UUCP>
Reply-To: art@buengc.bu.edu (A. R. Thompson)
Followup-To: comp.sys.encore
Organization: Boston Univ. Col. of Eng.
Lines: 40

In article <442@gouldfr.UUCP> humberto@gouldfr.UUCP (Humberto Lucas) writes:
>[...]
>Encore recently bought GOULD, a minicomputer and minisupercomputer
>manufacter based in Fort Lauderdale (Florida) and represented in almost
>all European countries. As Encore is the name of the new Company all
>European subsidiaries will became Encore.... Give us some time...

I recently attended the Encore annual meeting.  Encore Chairman,  Ken
Fischer explained the deal in detail.  I've been meaning to post my
recollections of his talk.  This article was the stimulus I needed.

Gould has been around for a while.  They make a very good line of products
including a computer line.  For a time, about ten years ago, they were the
darlings of Wall Street.  It came to pass that Gould ultimately was
acquired by Nippon Mining Inc.  This complete foreign ownership of
American technology was too much for the Government and Gould was frozen
out of all government sales (I think it applied to grant money too but I
can't recall for sure).  After a while this began to pinch and Nippon
Mining began to look about for a suitor.  Along came Encore and Ken
Fischer.  The following deal was cut: Nippon Mining gets 20 million shares
of Encore stock (don't hold me to the exact numbers) and Nippon loans
Encore another $110 million with which to complete the transaction.  The
stock that Nippon Mining got carries no special privileges, no seat on the
board etc.

Fischer said the deal was great for all concerned because it allowed
Nippon Mining to profit from the reopening of the Government market and
Encore gained the infrastructure (140,000 square feet of space in
Florida and all the equipment), competent sales and service forces.

In response to a question from the audience, he said that Encore had
become a $300 million a year corporation up from a $30 million a year
corporation without having to finance the growth out of revenues.  He said
he was sure there was enough market for the Multimax and other like
products to easily justify the acquisition.  He was quite upbeat about the
whole thing.  At one point toward the end, when it became clear that
things were going well, Fischer said, "You're always hearing about how the
Japanese are buying America, well we just bought a piece of Japan."  It
was one of the most impressive perfomances by a business executive that I
have ever seen.