Analysts contacted by Reuter give Wang Laboratories Inc only a 50-50 chance of emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, and information now coming out paints an increasingly black picture – according to the Wall Street Journal, in addition to the swingeing software licences that the company demands when a VS computer changes hands – $50,000 compared with $1,000 before the charge was hiked, plus heavy mandatory maintenance charges for users of VSes, Wang has been so desperate for cash that it has been billing value-added resellers $175 a time to answer a telephone query; it is extremely doubtful that the company will ever be able to collect many of those billings, but one clear asset is the European operations, 2,500 employees generating $600m a year, and not included in the bankruptcy filing – quick sale of the entire European, or even the whole international, business before uncertainty erodes its value, looks like the best bet, and an offer from ICL Plc would make sense.
