Conference turris::scandia

  Just off the top of my head three more come to mind:
  
      	Saab Data  (part of Saab-Scania, the people who also bring
  		    us the Saab 900, etc)  -- based in Sweden
  	Nokia (these folks started out making rubber boots...)
  					   -- based in Finland
  
  	L M Ericson (sp?) (also make telephones) -- based in Sweden
  
  Jim.

  And Nokia still makes rubber boots (and car tyres and toilet
  paper and and and...). Nevertheless, it is quite a big company
  in electronics (used to be the biggest DEC OEM in Finland, don't
  know about today).
  
  To add something to the list, there used to be Regnecentralen
  in Denmark; don't know whether they're still alive (they were
  at least a couple of years ago, because we lost a sale against
  them here in Germany!).
  

  According to a Fact Sheet on Sweden, published by the Swedish
  Institute and entitled "Electrical Engineering and Electronics
  in Sweden, Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (the Swedish Ma Bell?)
  has entered the personal computer market; through a subsidiary
  within the Ericsson Group (Ericsson Information Systems) this
  company is also in the field of office automation.

  A small firm, Luxor Datorer AB, has been dominating the Swedish
  computer market both for home and professional use.

  In 1982, the Svenska Institutet published a 10-page booklet
  called, "Computer Technology in Sweden" [Current Sweden No. 280]
  that I now plan to send for.

  Neil

LM Ericsson makes an IBM clone.  The review I read of it was
positive.  Nice design, I think they said.  The one I saw in
Amsterdam had an amber screen, but I did not investigate closely.

  If I'm not mistaken badly, Luxor was bought by Nokia recently.
  
  Nokia makes very nice PCs (IBM compatible, surprise surprise!)
  as well as terminals. Both have screens with 72 Hz refresh rate
  and 28 lines (they have a VT220 compatible terminal; you can
  use the extra lines e.g. to label the LK201 lookalike function
  keys).
                                                 
  The displays are made by Salora which was also bought by Nokia
  recently (a few years ago I think). Salora is (used to be) one
  of the larger TV manufacturers in Europe; now they are also
  producing lots of displays (like the ones used in IBM PCs that
  are assembled in Europe).

  Re 28.1
  
  As far as I remember SAAB DATA (it really was DATA SAAB) no longer
  exist. If I remeber correctly it was bought by the Ericsson group
  a couple of years ago. 
  
  There is various subsidiaries of the Ericsson groput that are
  producing computers, mainly (IBM PC compatible) personal computers
  and terninals.
  
  One very nice VT100 compatible terminal is the Facit Twist where
  the screen can be turned 90 degrees. when in the "portrait" position
  it displays 72 (I think) lines of 80 characters each. It also
  has a Black on white text where the white goes all the way to
  the border of the screen. Screen refresh rate is something like
  70 Hz.
  
  Olof
  

  The following was excerpted from the CURRENT SWEDEN article 
  entitled, "Computer Technology in Sweden" by Lennart Lindeborg,
  head of the Information and Systems Technology Department at
  the Swedish National Board for Technical Development.

  Swedish computer technology began to develop shortly after World
  War II.  At the initiative of military authorities, a government-
  run development program was initiated, with the aim of providing
  the Swedish government with its own computer as soon as possible.
  This computer would be used mainly for calculating purposes in
  the civil services and for both military and civilian research.
  By 1953, the result was the development of what at that time was
  one of the world's fastest computers, know as BESK (the Swedish
  initials of "binary electronic sequence calculator").

  This early government involvement in Swedish computers was phased
  out in 1956, when the development team and designs were taken over
  by a private company called �tvidabergs Industrier, which later
  changed its name to Facit.  Facit, Datasaab, and Stansaab were the
  main Swedish sellers of computer equipment in the the Swedish 
  market as well as abroad, later in competition with foreign 
  companies, mainly IBM.  These Swedish firms later came to 
  concentrate on specific applications of computer technology and
  peripheral equipment.

  Among Swedish products, terminals occupy a prominent role - both
  general-purpose video display terminals and terminals designed
  for special purposes such as banking.  Successful Swedish 
  applications include process-control systems, industrial robots,
  air traffic control systems, and office terminals.

  There were mergers in the computer industry during the 1970s.
  More recently, an interesting corporate constellation was
  created through the takeover of Datasaab by LM Ericsson [see Replies
  .3 & .6] (Stansaab had previously merged with Datasaab.)

  The government retains some involvement in the computer industry
  through the 9% share in Datasaab held by the National Swedish
  Telecommunications Administration.

  Industrial robots began to be introduced in Swedish industry at
  the end of the 1960s.  By 1979, about 1,000 robots were in use.
  The biggest users are within the metal goods and vehicle subsectors
  of engineering.

  Computer-aided design (CAD) system began to be introduced in 
  Sweden during the mid-1970s.  About 60 systems were installed
  as of 1981.  All of the large electronics companies use CAD in 
  their design work.  In 1982, Sweden had no domestic production
  of CAD systems.

  The Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) - in whose 24 
  nationwide unions over 2 million or 90% of Sweden's blue-collar
  worker are members - has a positive attitude toward the need
  for technological development.  But LO has demanded greater
  employee control of future technological development.
  LO asserts, for example, a lathe operator should be allowed to 
  program his or her own lathe.

I worked in Sweden during the late 1960's and early 1970's and have some
direct experience of the early computer industry: 

BESK was an almost direct copy of the ORDVAC/ILLIAC computer. I learned
on ILLIAC and have manuals for both.  ILLIAC/BESK had a 40-bit word,
split into two 20-bit operands.  The operand was organized into a 4-bit
operand, a 4-bit modifier, and a 12 bit address.  (ILLIAC could only
address 1024 words, while BESK had a full complement of 4096 words.) 

BESK was running in 1966, but was decommisioned a year or so later.

In the early '60's, there was a proposal to the Mathematical Board to
build Super-BESK.  This was turned down in favor of buying an IBM 7090. 
A few -- shall we say hackers? -- decided to build a transistorized
BESK, called TRASK (the Swedish word for "swamp"). They added a built-in
floating point unit, and replaced the BESK "drum" memory with some
Japanese core.  TRASK was running in 1967, and was still in use when I
joined Dec in 1972. 

Although I could write TRASK/BESK/ILLIAC machine language, I wrote all
but one or two subroutines in Algol-60.  You punched your program on
paper tape, then 
  1. ran the compiler pass one into the computer.
  2. ran your program into the computer.
  3. ran the compiler pass two into the computer.
  4. ran your program source back through the computer.
  5. took the executable code from the punch.

Compilation ran pretty much at paper-tape speed (1000-3000 bytes/second).
For all that TRASK/BESK was designed quite some time ago, it ran pretty
smoothly.  I still have some paper tapes and listings lying around. 

DATASAAB tried to design a machine for the '70's, and won a bid against
a DEC-10.  Unfortunately, they could never get the machine working and
the company eventually went under, as was not quite stated in the
previous note.  There is/was a strong movement to keep a viable computer
industry in Sweden in order to maintain economic and military
independence from the superpowers. 

The Stockholm computer center bought a largish DEC-10 in the early
1970's and was quite satisfied with it.  The center head, Bjorn Kleist
used to tell visitors that he had "28 operators, 27 1/2 on the IBM
360/75 and 1/2 on the '10: when the 10 wants something, it rings a
doorbell and someone goes over to it."  By the way, the ancestor (and
now competitor) of NOTES was implemented on this '10. 

When the IBM 7090 was decommissioned, (replaced by an IBM 360/75), the
computer center offered it for sale: "one owner, dealer serviced". They
got only one offer: from the head of the Super-BESK design team. He was
willing to move it away at his expense.  "What will you do with it?" 
"I'm going to put it on my lawn to rust as a monument to the Swedish
computer industry."  The computer center -- legally bound to accept the
highest (only) bid -- scrounged up an $800 bid from a junk dealer
somewhere. 

Martin_dusting_off_old_braincells

    From the magazine, New Scientist, Feburary 6 issue:
    
    Researchers at the University of Link�ping, led by Bengt Bengtsson,
    have designed a computer, named "Diana," that helps control heating
    systems installed in apartment and other similarly large buildings.  
    
    Over the past three years, Sweden has installed some 130,000 heat
    pumps of varying sizes to take heat from air or water outside and
    put it into building heating systems.  Such devices are expensive
    to buy, but inexpensive to operate; so they should be kept running
    as often as possible.  
    
    Electomechanical switches alone are incapable of maintaining proper 
    load balance in large buildings so a computer must be used to handle
    the myriad of data arriving simultaneously from digital and analog
    sources.  Diana can process data from sensors and to controls using
    up to 40 channels at one time.

    Ora seems to be well informed about things here in Finland.
    
    Indeed we have Nokia Electronics (a division of Nokia) producing
    PC's, terminals (VDU220...), Mikko computers and heavily investing
    in developing MPS-10, a 32-bit supermini.
    
    They still are a major T-OEM. 
    
    Terveisin

    Stantext A/S of Risskov, Denmark, has begun to install a new publishing
    system based on a "fail-safe" super-minicomputer from BTI Computer
    Systems of Sunnyvale, California.  Called the Stantext 8000, the system
    is targeted at nearly all major publishing market segments: commercial
    typesetters, newspaper and book publishers, corporate publications
    departments and in-house printers. 

    The system has been designed to enable the user to plug in extra CPUs,
    memory boards, disk drives and so on as needed at any time in the
    future.  It provides low-cost test terminals as well as high-resolution
    displays supporting graphics.  A WYSIWYG terminal is scheduled for
    release next fall. 

    Hardware: A 60-megabyte-per-second, 16-slot, 32-bit bus connects
    resource modules on the system.  Up to eight of any type of module can
    be plugged into the bus.  In this way, up to eight CPUs can be
    configured on one system, sharing up to 24 MB of memory and 9 GB of
    disk storage. 

    The number of peripheral devices supported by the system is nearly
    unlimited: up to eight processing units can be plugged in, with up to
    four controllers per unit, and 64 ports per controller for
    communications.  Mag tape drives can be added, as can line printers. 

    Developed over the past four years, the system is now being used by
    T.H. Laursen in Tonder, Denmark, for commercial printing.  The
    configuration includes two Stantext 8000 processors, 12 text terminals
    and two 9000 high-resolution workstations.  Stantext A/S claims that
    this is the largest order for computerized typesetting equipment ever
    placed by a commercial printer in Denmark. 

    Stantext has been using the system at its own site and by clients at
    remote sites. It also says that three additional systems will be
    installed in Denmark soon. 

    The system is being marketed internationally by Eibis International,
    with operations already under way in England and Germany.  Marketing in
    the U.S. is scheduled to begin within three months. 

    Stantext A/S's address is: Sindalsvej 30, 8240 Risskov, Denmark. 
                                                                    
    [from "The Seybold Report on Publishing Systems" - April 14, 1986]

    
    Seems to me, that this is something we could push VAXStations netted
    together using DEC/SET or something and show the benefit of having
    a system that meets their needs and yet not be so "vertical" that
    they can't use it for anything else like "generic" word-processing
    in some type of office-automation system.
    
    Oh, well. (sigh, ho, hum, etc...)
    
    	\rik

    According to the Wall Street Journal, 13-Feb-87, p. 27, there is
    currently a patent dispute involving Swedish inventor Olof Soderbloom
    who, in the 1960s, awoke one night to draw a diagram he had just
    dreamed and later developed into the networking scheme now known as the
    "token ring."  Soderbloom is reportedly pressing companies to give
    him a cut of the sales of token-ring products now that IBM is using
    his approach.  He hasn't yet sued a U.S. maker. "But there's a limit,"
    he warns.
    
    [Excerpted from the VNS Computer News Monday 16-Feb-1987.] 

         "Ericsson Abandons Computer Division, Selling it to Nokia" 
                    
    		Brauchli, Marcus W., and Hudson, Richard L.
                WALL STREET JOURNAL, January 21, 1988,  PP:26
    
    L.M. Ericcson, the Swedish telecommunications giant, is selling most of
    its troubled data systems division to Finland's Oy Nokia. The new
    company, Nokia Data, will be the Nordic area's largest computer
    manufacturer.  Weak marketing and distribution will prevent it from
    being a major player internationally, though.  Ericsson will retain a
    20% holding in the new company. 

	RE: < Note 28.14 by TLE::SAVAGE "Neil, @Spit Brook" >

>         "Ericsson Abandons Computer Division, Selling it to Nokia" 
                    

	This is of much interest to me since I am one of nine
	DEC employees at  Digital Ericsson Engineering.

	We work on engineering of Retail Banking systems,
	together with development people from the Banking
	part of Ericsson's Computer Division.

	Our location is Link�ping, Sweden where Ericsson
	had had their development concerning Banking for
	many years.

	However, the DEC employees are a part of the 
	Retail Banking Product Marketing Group with HQ
	in Reading, England.

	/Hasse Wallin,   LKPDEE::WALLIN

	PS. I'll try to put more info here when I get it. DS.

    More on the story in .14, from The Wall Street Journal, 21-Jan-88, p.
    26 
    
       Ericsson - Abandons computer division, selling it to Nokia
      
    Sweden's telefon AB L.M. Ericsson abandoned its troubled foray into
    computers, agreeing to sell most of its loss-plagued data-systems
    division to Finland's Oy Nokia for an undisclosed sum. The transaction
    will create the Nordic area's biggest computer maker, to be known as
    Nokia Data. It will have annual sales of about seven billion Swedish
    kroner ($1.16 billion), the companies said. But industry analysts said
    it will remain only a minor force outside Scandinavia, because of
    weaknesses in marketing and distribution. 

    According to last Thursday's 'Helsingin Sanomat', the Digtal-Ericsson
    retail banking contract was part of the deal (meaning Nokia bought
    the conract too...). What they do with it remains to be seen, of
    course.
    
    Nokia Data is 7th largest computer manufacturer in Europe after
    this. The sale has attracted quite a bit of interest here (in Germany);
    though Nokia hasn't been very active in Central Europe so far and
    doesn't have a strong marketing/sales organization here (as mentioned
    elsewhere), I guess they've reached dimensions which might give
    reason for some smaller German manufacturers to worry.
    

>	RE:  Note 28.17 

>    though Nokia hasn't been very active in Central Europe so far and
>    doesn't have a strong marketing/sales organization here
    

     In this sale the following salescompanies of Ericsson's are 
     included:
     *  Sweden
     *  Denmark
     *  W Germany
     *  Switzerland
     *  Holland
     *  Gt Britain
     *  France
     *  Spain

     In the following countries sales will be made through
     Ericsson's salescompanies:
     *  Norway
     *  Belgium
     *  Ireland
     *  Austria
     *  Italy
     *  North America (mostly USA [my comment])
     *  Australia
     *  New Zealand

     This kind of makes the marketing/sales org. of Nokia's a bit
     stronger, don't You agree ?

     /Hasse
     

    Sure, I agree with you (though I don't know how strong Ericsson's
    sales/marketing in those countries is, but probably stronger than
    what Nokia had). In my reply, I was referring to what Nokia had
    until this sale; the one I know best is Germany (in Starnberg near
    Munich) and it is really small. They have been doing mostly OEM
    sales with terminals and some PC stuff, but not really much.
    
    Can you shed some light on the future of the Ericsson-Digital 
    (or, now, rather Nokia-Digital) cooperation contract in the retail
    banking business?
    

	RE: .19

	I can't say that I know how strong Ericsson's sales are
	compared to other companies, but according to the
	Annual Report 1986 (last one since FY = CY) the 
	Data Systems Division sold for 42 % of a total 1300 M$.

	Geographical distribution of sales 
	(whole Ericsson Information Systems):
	*  Sweden            24%
	*  Europe excl.above 60%
	*  US & Canada        6%
	*  S. America         4%
	*  Asia               3%
	*  Australia / NZ     3%

	Banking business mentioned:
	*  Gibraltar Savings Bank, USA. Computerization of 100+
	   offices ordered.
	*  SPADAB, Sweden. 5000 PC:s, 4000 printers and nearly
	   1000 automatic teller machines ordered.


	Unfortunately I have no additional information on the
	relations between Nokia and DEC for the moment.

	/Hasse 

    Discussion of this topic continues in Note 268.

    In the May 16, 1988 issue of Business Week there is a article on
    page 112h entitled, "Norsk Takes the UNIX Cure."  It says that Norsk's
    newest line of computers will run UNIX instead of a proprietary
    operating system.

    European Computer Makers - "The Hottest Computer Command in Europe:
    Merge"
    
    	{Business Week, 19-Jun-89, p. 47} {Article summarized and
    distributed by Digital's Market Information Services Group (MISG)}
    
    The Continent's slumping computer industry is facing a major shakeout.
    With some big European computer makers in the red, the pressure is on
    for mergers. After posting double-digit annual growth in profits
    through most of the decade, West Germany's Nixdorf Computer lost $75
    million before taxes in the  first quarter, on top of a $300 million
    pretax loss on sales of $2.7 billion  in 1988.          

>>  Norsk Data lost $46.6 million on sales of $435 million. Many analysts   
>>  feel that one or both of the companies may be forced out of computers
>>  as Sweden's Ericsson was last year when it sold out to Nokia. Nokia
>>  has been losing market share in the crucial Swedish market.
    
    Profits are sagging at  Britain's Amstrad. Rival ICL may not make it
    without the help on the Continent. Analysts suspect that Olivetti's new
    chief operating officer, Vittorio Cassoni, may spin off parts of
    Olivetti if he can't get profits humming. European governments don't
    want companies in such a key industry to become dependent on
    foreigners, and U.S. or Asian buyouts would be politically
    unacceptable. Although most European computer makers now have some form
    of protection from takeover, mergers may be the only way to prosper in
    a global industry. 
    
    One likely formula is a 50-50 joint ventures among weaker players. 
    Europe's two biggest electronics companies, Siemens and Dutch giant
    Philips, are said to be scouting computer acquisitions. "The European
    industry is definitely entering a phase of restructuring," says Hank
    Powell, an analysts with Nomura Research Institute in London. The main
    question is who's going to get restructured by whom.   

    {The Wall Street Journal, 11-Aug-89, p. C8}
    
    Norsk Data AS said it will post a bigger-than-expected first half loss
    and announced the resignation of Rolf Skar, its longtime CEO. The
    Norwegian computer company's weak first half adds doubts about its
    chances of survival.  Industry analysts were skeptical that the
    management change and corporate restructuring that were unveiled can
    stanch the losses or the apparent erosion of customer confidence in
    Norsk Data. 
    
    Norsk said it expects to post a first-half loss of 240 million
    Norwegian kroner ($34.6 million) if a small nonrecurring gain is
    excluded. That would nearly double last year's first-half loss. Most
    analysts had expected the loss to narrow as a result of recent
    cost-cutting moves, including the dismissal of one-fifth of Norsk's
    employees. 
    
    The departure of Mr. Skar, a Norsk Data founder and chief executive
    since 1978, had been expected. Directors named Erik Engebretsen, the
    company's chief financial officer, to succeed Mr. Skar. Analysts expect
    Mr. Engebretsen, a 40-year-old economist who joined the company two
    years ago, to intensify the continuing overhaul of Norsk Data's
    financial controls.         

    Fiscal News - Norsk Data AS
    
    Norsk Data AS - Second half's pretax loss shrinks on strong sales, cost
    cuts
    
    {The Wall Street Journal, 7-Feb-90, p. A41}
    
    The Norwegian computer concern reported that its pretax loss for the
    1989 second half narrowed to 175 million kroner ($27.2 million) from a
    first-half deficit of 244 million kroner, a sign that cost-cutting
    began to take effect. The latest results, which exclude one-time items,
    widened from a year-earlier loss of 147 million kroner. Sales rose 23%
    to 1.36 billion kroner from 1.11 billion kroner in the first half;
    analysts said this better-than-expected showing eased many doubts about
    Norsk Data's survival, at least temporarily. For all of 1989, Norsk
    Data's loss, before taxes and one-time items, widened to 419 million
    kroner from 326 million kroner in 1988. Sales fell 12$ to 2.46 billion
    kroner from 2.77 billion kroner. Some analysts remained skeptical about
    Norsk Data's prospects for returning to profitability this year,
    despite its firing nearly one-third of its employees and spinning off
    computer manufacturing operations in a big realignment last year.

     Stratus Computer, Ericsson Telecom - Sign agreement. Digital mentioned.
            {The Boston Globe, 10-May-90, p. 90}
 
    Stratus, a maker of fault-tolerant computers, said it signed a
    strategic agreement with Ericsson Telecom  of Stockholm, the largest
    telecommunications company in Europe. Under the agreement, Ericsson
    will integrate Stratus computers in its newest network operation
    system. A spokesman for Stratus said Ericsson  chose Stratus from a
    field that included Digital Equipment. Stratus did not place a value on
    the agreement, but the spokesman said Stratus expects to see
    significant revenue from the arrangement by 1992.

    From: [email protected]
    Newsgroups: clari.tw.computers,clari.news.europe
    Subject: Compaq opens Finland subsidiary
    Keywords: corporate news, corporate finance, computers, manufacturing
    Date: 18 May 90 18:09:05 GMT
    Location: finland
    ACategory: financial
    Slugword: compaq
 
    	HOUSTON (UPI) -- Compaq Computer Corp., a leading maker of personal
    computer systems and portable computers, said Friday it will open
    Compaq Computer OY, a wholly owned subsidiary in Helsinki, Finland.	The
    opening of the subsidiary allows Compaq to meet the growing needs of
    Finnish consumers and moves the company closer to its goal of total
    European market coverage, said Zelimir Ilic, managing director of
    Compaq's Europe International Division in Munich, West Germany.  The
    entire product line will be marketed through the Finnish authorized
    Compaq computer dealer network and fully supported by Compaq Computer
    OY, the company said.
     
    	In 1989, Compaq opened wholly owned subsidiaries in Norway and
    Denmark, and also entered the South American market by authorizing
    dealers in Chile, Colombia and Venezuela.	Compaq now operates 16
    wholly owned international subsidiaries. Its products are sold in 63
    countries through a network of 3,000 authorized dealers, the company
    said.

    From: [email protected] (Fridrik Skulason)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: From Iceland
    Date: 5 Jul 90 13:34:54 GMT
    Organization: University of Iceland (RHI)
 
    What follows has not much to do with Icelandic culture, but is probably
    of some interest to Icelanders outside Iceland.

    =====
 
    One of the largest computer-related companies in Iceland,
    "Skrifstofuvelar/GJJ" went bankrupt yesterday.
 
    They managed to do this despite the fact they were the major
    distributors for several popular products, including IBM PS/2
    computers, Microsoft software, Star printers, Xerox copiers etc.
 
    It should not surprise anybody that several other companies here are
    now trying to become the Icelandic distributors for these products.
 
    -frisk
 
   -- 
   Fridrik Skulason      University of Iceland  |       
   Technical Editor of the Virus Bulletin (UK)  |  Reserved for future expansion
   E-Mail: [email protected]    Fax: 354-1-28801  |   

It is also suprising to know that Icelandic s/w houses are starting to get
projects out at Keflav�k (the NATO base).  One I'm familiar with is IADS or the
Icelandic Air Defense System, which will have portions subcontracted to 
T�lvumi�lun, h.f. - a company my host-brother works for.

	fwiw

		rikki

         The VOGON News Service
 Edition : 2137               Friday 24-Aug-1990            Circulation :  8306

VNS COMPUTER NEWS:                            Tracy Talcott, VNS Computer Desk
------------------                            Nashua, NH, USA                 

 Norsk Data AS - Breaks even
        {The Wall Street Journal, 23-Aug-90, p. A10} {MISG}
   Norsk Data AS broke even in this year's first half, a surprisingly early
 recovery from huge losses the previous two years. The company reported pretax
 profit of one million Norwegian kroner ($165,000) for this year's first six
 months, compared with a loss of 194 million kroner a year earlier. Sales
 climbed 10% to 1.22 billion kroner from 1.1 billion kroner. By laying off 700
 employees, or 21% of its work force during the past 12 months, Norsk Data
 lowered its break-even level to a level corresponding to annual sales of 2.5
 billion kroner this year.

    VNS COMPUTER NEWS:                    Tracy Talcott, VNS Computer Desk
    ------------------                            Nashua, NH, USA
      
    Norsk Data AS - Says pretax deficit narrowed in '90
	{The Wall Street Journal, 24-Jan-91, p. B3D}   
    
   The company's pretax loss for the year contracted to 129 million Norwegian
 kroner ($22 million) from Nkr417 million in the previous year. A second-half
 pretax loss of Nkr128 million reversed the company's break-even results in the
 first half and disappointed analysts who had expected a small profit for the
 full year. Norsk Data's sales traditionally have been strongest in the second
 half. But during the final six months of 1990, the company's sales fell 5%
 from the first half and were down 17% from the year-earlier period. Orders in
 the second half tumbled 10% from the first half and fell 11% from the year
 before. Analysts had cited increasing sales and orders, and the tiny
 first-half profit, as evidence Norsk Data was regaining customer confidence
 after huge losses in 1988 and 1989. But with sales declining once again, "the
 worry for 1991 is that order momentum industrywide is against them," said
 Dennix Exton, a London-based computer analyst for Merrill Lynch & Co. "They'll
 have to continue scrambling to cut costs faster than sales are falling. And
 the low order backlog makes it doubtful that they'll be profitable this year."

    From: [email protected] (Jakob Nielsen)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Fujitsu buys Nokia Data
    Date: 30 May 91 16:58:11 GMT
    Sender: [email protected] (Poster of News)
    Organization: Bellcore (Bell Communications Research)
 
    This news was in the New York Times this morning (summarized):
 
    Fujitsu Ltd. has agreed to purchase Nokia Data, Europe's sixth-largest
    independent computer maker. According to the agreement, a British
    computer company that Fujitsu controls, ICL P.L.C., will pay $402.3
    million for Nokia Data, based in Stockholm, and will assume about
    $174.9 million of its debt. Also, Nokia's parent, Nokia Corp., will
    receive a 5 percent stake in ICL in the mid-1990s. Nokia is selling its
    computer unit in order to concentrate on its businesses in consumer
    electronics and mobile telecommunications. The combined company will be
    the fifth largest in the European computer market, behind IBM,
    Siemens-Nixdorf, Digital Equipment Corp. and Olivetti. According to
    International Data Corp., Nokia currently ranks 15th, with a 1.2%
    share, while ICL is 9th, with a 2.75% share. In 1990, ICL reported
    pretax profit of $192.4 million on revenues of $2.82 billion, while
    Nokia Data lost over $50 million on revenues of $1.2 billion.
 
    What are the reactions in Sweden/Finland? It this seen as good news or
    bad news?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    From: [email protected] (Kari Lahtinen)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Re: Fujitsu buys Nokia Data
    Date: 31 May 91 05:52:48 GMT
    Organization: Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland
 
    Well, I think the reactions have been quite positive. The stock market
    price for Nokia jumped some 10-15 %. The selling of Nokia Data was 
    somewhat expected but the buyer (Fujitsu) was a surprise. The CEO for 
    Nokia, Simo Vuorilehto, seemed very pleased when they announced the
    deal, probably the price was good for Nokia. There are some concerns
    though about the future of Nokias employees.
 
    Kari Kenneth Lahtinen -- [email protected]
    FINLAND -- THE FUNLAND WITH FINLANDIA !! 

    By the way, I think Nokia Data or Nokia Communications
    has in the past sponsored sporting events here in USA,
    such as ICE_BOARDING, which is a form of ICE_SAILING
    on frozen lakes. And I'm told there is a good supply of
    frozen lakes, in some of the Scandinavian countries too!
    

    From Vogon News Service, 2764th edition, Wednesday 10-Feb-1993:
    
    VNS COMPUTER NEWS:                        Tracy Talcott, VNS Computer Desk
    -                                         Littleton, MA, USA              
    
    Norsk Data AS - Halts trading in shares amid creditor talks 
    {The Wall Street Journal, 9-Feb-93, p. A12} 
    
    Norwegian computer company Norsk Data AS abruptly halted trading in its
    shares for the next three weeks pending completion of crucial
    negotiations with creditors that will determine whether it survives as
    an independent company.  The company faces a financial hurdle with the
    deadline to repay about 77 million marks ($46 million) when a bond
    issue matures early next month.  "It could be difficult for us to repay
    without refinancing or restructuring debt in some way," says Norsk Data
    Treasurer Carl Espen Wollebek in a phone interview.  Norsk Data's
    financial reserves are nearly exhausted at the end of last year, the
    parent company's shareholders equity totaled a mere 25 million
    Norwegian kroner ($3.6 million) while debt outstanding exceeded 850
    million kroner.  
    
    Norsk Data's operating units, however, "are doing fairly well," Mr.
    Wollebek said.  "I don't this will be a threat to their ongoing
    operations - more a balance sheet problem confined to the parent
    company."  And he expressed optimism that debt restructuring talks
    would succeed - perhaps by creditors agreeing to convert some of their
    credits outstanding into equity.  Some analysts also expect additional
    asset sales by Norsk Data.