A new European consortium has acquired the rights to the technology of defunct workstation manufacturer Whitechapel Workstations Ltd after months of negotiations (CI No 958). Whitechapel called in the receivers after running out of money back in April: venture capital investors, including Newmarket Ventures, were apparently not in a position to offer the company further funding, and promised investment from a third party did not materialise. In May, Quest Group Plc bought Whitechapel’s third party support, service and repair operations, but the rights to the MIPS Computer Systems Inc-based Hitech-10 workstation, manufactured in Konstanz, West Germany by Alcatel NV subsidiary ComputerTechnik Muller GmbH, remained up for grabs, to be fought over by Prime Computer from the US and a group of European investors, said to be primarily based in Holland. The European group won, and has purchased the rights through its bankers, Barron International Holdings Ltd of Gibralter. The consortium has set up an offshore holding company in the Channel Islands, which incorporated a wholly-owned subsidiary on June 24 – a name for the subsidiary has not yet been decided. Initial funding from the holding company amounts to UKP1.6m. Nick Christie, who was appointed managing director of Whitechapel only six weeks before its demise, will head the new company, which will be based in Bracknell, Berkshire. Christie said that a small number of ex-Whitechapel employees would also be employed. The firm has already set up plans for sales, marketing and support of the Hitech-10, and Muller has agreed to continue manufacturing the systems for the company to sell in the UK and mainland Europe. Christie denied that Muller or MIPS Computer were amongst the investors, but said there was a tight liason between the three parties to continue selling the product. He said that the small overheads after shedding the large sub engineering effort of Whitechapel, plus stronger links with software houses, would allow the company a greater chance of success. Christie also revealed plans to subcontract new product development out to an engineering group, possibly to Whitechapel spin-off Algorithmics, based in the South Bank Technopark, Southwark, London. New generation machines are likely to be pitched at the high end of the market, and may well use the recently announced R3000 version of the MIPS RISC processor, according to Christie.
