Glenrothes, Scotland-based 3.5 Winchester disk drive pioneer Rodime Plc has given up the unequal struggle and decided to initiate an orderly liquidation of its remaining assets. It has asked for the listing of its shares on the London International Stock Exchange to be suspended – at fourpence, its US subsidiary will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and it has asked the Bank of Scotland to appoint receivers at the Scottish and Singapore subsidiaries. The decision to liquidate follows the failure of its potential joint venture partners in Taiwan and Korea to find sufficient finance for the manufacturing venture. Rodime will end manufacturing at its Singapore plant as soon as cost-effective quantities of existing inventory components have been converted into finished product – that is likely to be in four to six months. The company says that drop in revenue as a result of weak markets, combined with the investment costs to date for the introduction of new products have exhausted working capital available to all Rodime’s subsidiaries. All that will be left is its patent portfolio, principally the patent on the concept of the 3.5 disk drive – it will sell the Singapore and Boca Raton, Florida facilities; it will continue to operate its European repair operations in Glenrothes but intends to sell it in the near future. The battered shareholders may still receive some value from Rodime’s patent licensing.
