With Bell Atlantic Corp, GEC Plc, Inspectorate International AG, Lex Service Group, Comdisco Inc, BellSouth Corp, United States Fidelity & Guarantee Inc, Granada Group Plc and Plessey Co Plc all being put forward as runners in the sweepstake on the identity of the mystery company seeking the hand of Atlantic Computers Plc yesterday, it was clear that the talks had been an unusually well-guarded secret. On the face of it, Bell Atlantic looked a short nose ahead on the grounds that it now has major interests in computer maintenance in Europe following acquisition of BCE Inc’s business, it bought the computer leasing arm of Greyhound Corp in the US, and says that it wants to expand its UK interests. But a lot of money was going onto GEC, which has a joint property venture with Atlantic. Against GEC was the fact that owning Atlantic would be regarded as reducing its quality of earnings, and the slightly disreputable image of computer leasing doesn’t entirely fit the image Stanhope Gate likes to project. Inspectorate International AG was the first name that sprung to many minds, but those in the know – at least with regard to Inspectorate, insisted that the Swiss firm would be sitting this one out. Among the arguments against it swelling its Meridian leasing business were that it had enough on its plate already, and that this time it would have to come up with a lot of hard cash for any bid to succeed. Lex Service makes the list on the grounds that it did hold talks with Atlantic some two years ago but those were about Atlantic possibly acquiring Lex. It would be most uncharacteristic of Comdisco Inc to buy its way into Europe, since the company’s posture is to contend that it could build a better business from scratch with the cash it would have to stump up on an existing one. BellSouth Corp has already bought Dataserv over here, making it a definite candidate, but Dataserv operates mainly in the US, and BellSouth has been less agressive than its Philadelphia sibling. Any Bell, though Southwestern is an outsider – might be attracted to Atlantic for its embryonic telecommunications business as well as its computer leasing operations. The big US insurer United States Fidelity & Guarantee is interested in expanding its leasing business this side of the water (see below), but probably has enough on its plate for now. Despite its big interests in computer maintenance, Granada Group is unlikely to be tempted by Atlantic, and while Plessey is believed to be looking for a computer related extra arm to its business, a software and computer services company would surely be of more interest than a leaser. Then again the Japanese, stuffed with cash, can’t be completely ruled out, and so the likes of Orient Leasing and Nomura can’t be ruled out.
