Sequent Computer Systems Inc believes competitors, worried about losing accounts to its Symmetry series of Intel Corp 80486-based commercial multi-processing systems, are behind a vicious whispering campaign against the company. The allegations about the company’s financial state, thought to have originated in the UK, follow two quarters of losses, have been denied forcefully by Sequent, which says there is no truth to them. The Beaverton, Oregon company says its fourth quarter results, due on January 21, will show a return to profit, and it plans to announce systems using the 50MHz version of Intel Corp’s 80486 the following day, the first day of the UniForum show in San Francisco. In the UK, Sequent says that it is now hiring staff again, following the job reductions that followed its second quarter loss back in July, the latest recruit being UK marketing director Mark Miller, who has come across from Santa Cruz Operation Inc, where he was system marketing manager, after being made an offer he couldn’t refuse.
