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Time's Continental Edison deal collapses

Creditors won't buy in

Time Computers' proposed takeover of Continental Edison, the leading French PC maker, has collapsed.

According to Time, creditors of CE were unwilling to agree takeover terms, necessary to take the deal forward. The UK's biggest system builder expressed "great disappointment - but there are plenty of opportunities we're looking at".

Time confirmed it was in talks to buy CE on June 14.

Question is: what will, Cofidur, CE's owner, do with the business if it can't find a buyer. A company in which creditors hold such sway does not sound like one in the best of health.

Butnow that Time is out of the way, it will probably be in Intel's interests to find or broke a deal with a more Intel-friendly system builder.

Time is AMD's second biggest customer in Europe, after Fujitsu Siemens, with 90 per cent of its systems incorporating a AMD chip.

Continental Edison is also a strong AMD account, reflecting its status as a consumer PC supplier, but the AMD/Intel mix is more like 60:40. The business is France's third biggest supplier of PCs to retailers, shipping 160,000 units in 2001, according to IDC. ®

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