It was inevitable that if AST Research Inc continued to lose money, the South Korean noose would be drawn ever tighter, and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd has asserted more control over the Irvine, California company, making the price of extra funds the bouncing of co-founder Safi Qureshey; to save face all round, he becomes chairman emeritus, which is usually a purely honorary title. He is replaced as chairman by Samsung chief executive Kwang-Ho Kim. By no means is Safi fading out of the AST picture, insisted an AST spokesman to Reuters. He will be working with Samsung, visiting customers, focusing the technology direction. Samsung now owns about 40% of AST, but effective control increases because the Seoul company has put up $60m from to help pay off the $90m promissory note that is due to Tandy Corp as part of the deal too far that pushed AST into Samsung’s arms, the 1993 acquisition of Tandy’s personal computer manufacturing operations. Qureshey has not been involved in day-to-day operations, since AST hired Ian Diery, former Wang Laboratories Inc and Apple Computer Inc executive as president and chief executive. For its $60m Samsung gets that value in newly-issued shares that could take stock and options to 49.9%.
