Comdisco Fiasco Ends Quietly

Last month the bidding war for Comdisco's Availability Solutions business unit came to a swift end when SunGard purchased the unit for approximately $825 million in cash. Comdisco, which filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, has been trying to sell the unit since this summer. The unit specializes in disaster recovery.

The two companies vying to purchase the unit were Hewlett-Packard (HP) and SunGard. SunGard's bid was higher than HP's, but faced obstacles. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit in October to block SunGard's purchase. The DOJ was concerned that SunGard would have an unfair competitive advantage. With the combination of Comdisco and SunGard, IBM and SunGard control 80 percent of the market. On November 15, the District Court of Columbia ruled against the DOJ, which let SunGard complete its purchase.

"SunGard's acquisition of Comdisco's business continuity assets ensures the presence of a financially solid, hardware-neutral vendor, focused on the best interests of all customers. Importantly, customers will benefit from a greater geographic presence with more facilities, platforms, network capacity, and technical personnel, with increased operating efficiencies," commented James L. Mann, chairman and CEO of SunGard.

The purchase includes Comdisco's US-based Availability Solutions unit, as well as its professional services organization, Web-hosting business, and related operations in the United Kingdom and France.

http://www.sungard.com

http://www.comdisco.com