HONEYWELL BULL SEES REVENUE GROWTH
Honeywell Bull Inc, owned by Honeywell
Inc <HON>, <Cie des Machines Bull> and <NEC Corp>, said it
expects its 1987 revenues to increase 15 to 20 pct over its
current level of about 1.9 billion dlrs.
Honeywell Bull president Jerome Meyer also told the press
conference the company was profitable, adding the company aimed
to improve profits over time.
Honeywell Inc earlier today received 527 mln dlrs in cash
for the sale of 57.5 pct of its computer business to Bull and
NEC. Honeywell will retain a 42.5 pct interest in Honeywell
Bull and Bull will own an equal amount.
NEC owns 15 pct of the company.
Meyer, who had been executive vice president of Honeywell
Information Systems, said Honeywell Bull would work closely
with NEC and Bull in both developing new products and marketing
computers to multi-national companies.
"We haven't been growing as fast as we'd like, but we are
going to turn that around," Meyer said. He said business was
soft in the U.S.
He said the company was reorganizing its distribution
programs and its staff, reassigning and laying off selected
employees. He also said the company was hiring new workers.
Honeywell Bull chairman Jacques Stern, who is also chairman
of Bull, said he believed the computer industry could be a fast
growing market for companies that provide the type of computers
customers want. "I don't believe in the slump of the market,"
he said.
The computer company would offer open systems so that
customers would not be tied to a specific vendor or
architecture, and it will also focus on tying computers
together through communications networks.