November 16, 1988 IDEASSOCIATES BUYS ALCATEL’s FORMER ITT COURIER 3270 UNIT

By CBR Staff Writer



There was little likelihood that Alcatel NV would want to hang on to the
hodgepodge of US computer interests it inherited from ITT Corp, Qume is already
gone, and now that company has announced that the former Courier business in
Tempe, Arizona has been sold to IDEAssociates Inc, Billerica, Massachusetts for
an undisclosed sum. The business, which had been trading as Alcatel Business
Systems, manufactures IBM 3270-compatible displays, controllers and printers in
competition with the likes of Memorex Telex International NV and Lee Data Corp.
IDEA specialises in MS-DOS computer communications products and terminals for
IBM’s System 36, 38 and AS/400 computers. It is not clear whether the sale
includes what is left of the ITT Xtra MS-DOS clone business, but it seems likely
that it does. The sale does not affect Alcatel Business Systems in Europe, which
sells IBM-compatible communications processors from NCR-Comten, and other IBM
communications products as well as the 3270 line; Alcatel will now buy these
from IDEAssociates, which also gets a US service and support network in the
deal. IDEAssociates was unable yesterday to give any details of what was
included in the deal, give any idea of the size of the business, or give any
details of its own financial performance.