PCW SA, the Taiwanese-French personal computer maker, is offering a reward of half a million francs or about $85,000 for any information leading to the recovery of the Intel Corp 80486 and 80486SX microprocessors and dynamic memory chips that were stolen from its factory in Val-de-Reuil, Normandy on July 16, the company says. President Gilbert Lenoir recounted the incident in which the thieves took 2,500 chips with a purchase value of about $850,000 in a report in La Tribune-Defosses. Like all Friday afternoons, our factory was closed. Two cars arrived at the parking lot, carrying four people. Three of them presented themselves in the building and asked to see someone who supposedly worked there. Quickly thereafter, they threatened with a gun the few people remaining in the manufacturing department and forced them to give them the stock of the two most widely used processors (80486SX and 33MHz 80486s) and some dynamic memories. The paper quotes the police investigating the incident, saying it is the first time that chips have been stolen in France. It says furthermore that the Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire has been startled by the fact that 80486 microprocessors are prohibited exports to some countries. Lenoir says he likes to hope that the thieves were not from another manufacturer, even though the hypothesis is plausible, since demand for memories exceeds supply. Everybody is looking for them. It may be just thieves informed about the resale value of these parts. They could have been financed by a manufacturer or a foreign trader. And if the stock is dispersed in the US, there is little hope of seeing it again, he said. The commercial resale value of the haul is estimated at approximately $2.5m. PCW manufactures 100,000 personal computers a year in France with 500 people and claims, along with its distributor subsidiary Kenitec, approximately 7% of the French market. PCW has 50 direct-sales agencies throughout the country. The company is owned 75% by a Taiwanese businessman Kunnan Lo, 20% by Lenoir and 5% by its managers. To increase its capital reserves, the company expects to float itself on France’s Second Marche next month. It reported sales of approximately $110m with $4m operating profit last fiscal. Net profit was not given.
