Patriot Scientific Corp, San Diego-based developer of the ShBoom microprocessor, is set to acquire at least 90% of the equity of neighboring company Metacomp Inc. Metacomp, a private, closely- held company formed in 1978, produces data and telecommunications boards for the likes of Motorola Inc, Hewlett-Packard Co, AT&T, E-Systems Inc and Northern Telecom Ltd, based on PCI, IBM PC/AT, PS/2 Micro Channel, VME bus and PCMCIA systems. It had revenues of $2m for the fiscal year ending in July, and has been profitable for the last two years, following a reorganization. Patriot wants the acquisition to strengthen the communications business it recently entered with its ISDN CyberShark modem products (CI No 3,018). Norm Dawson, president and chief executive officer of Metacomp, will join the Patriot board of directors, and will manage Metacomp as a Patriot subsidiary. Metacomp already works on complex application specific integrated circuit chips for its product line, and Dawson said he could see many applications integrated around the ShBoom processor. Patriot expects to pay around $2.5m for the stock when the acquisition closes, probably next month.
