The Cole Papers

Triple-I, Autologic agree to merger

ATLANTA -- William Shaw, the chairman of Volt Information Sciences Inc., must be a lot like Victor Kaim, the TV pitchman who loved the razor so much he bought the company.

Volt's Autologic subsidiary had been selling the 3850 film recorder until earlier this year, when the 3850's inventor -- Information International Inc. -- withdrew the machine's licenses so that Triple-I would be its only seller.

On the Monday morning of NEXPO, word that Triple-I was merging with Autologic turned out to be true.

Thus, Shaw would get the 3850 back by buying Triple-I.

The two companies announced that after a weekend of negotiations, Autologic would be merged into Triple-I. After the merger, Volt would own about 3.3 million shares of publicly traded Triple-I's stock, or about 58 percent of the company.

The resulting business, projected to have annual revenues of more than $100 million, would be chaired by Shaw. Other executives would include Autologic's Dennis Doolittle as vice chairman and chief operating officer and Triple-I's Al Edwards as president and chief executive officer.

Charles Ying, the former president and chairman of Triple-I, would become president of Triple-I's DigiFlex division and a member of the board.

A letter of intent was signed here, with both companies saying that the merger would be complete in four to six weeks, pending approvals of the various boards, shareholders and governmental agencies; at press time the merger was still going ahead.

The resulting company, which will include Autologic's foreign subsidiaries, would be called Information International Inc. but would carry a brand of products called Autologic.

At the show, Edwards and other executives involved in the merger acknowledged that the merged companies would need to streamline product lines and lay off workers. Between the two companies there are more than 500 workers; the new company probably will need only 300.

Should the merger become complete, it will end Ying's 3¢-year quest to rebuild Triple-I. Ying, one of the founders of Atex in the 1970s, was asked to sit on Triple-I's board in the early '90s.

Early in 1992, amid a revolt by dissident shareholders, Ying was propelled from the head of a committee of board members searching for a new president to the president's chair itself.

Ying then went on a buying spree, acquiring companies such as Xitron (a company that built typesetter routers), Camex (the display ad makeup device company), Diadem (the European color imaging systems company) and DigiFlex (the display ad transmission company), all in an effort to build Triple-I into a powerhouse that could automate pre-press, specifically for the newspaper industry.

Last year Ying attempted to merge Triple-I with International Publishing Associates Holding Ltd.'s Monotype Systems and Berthold divisions, but the death of Peter Purdy, IPA's chief executive, scuttled the project.

-- dmc

Autologic Inc.,
(805) 498-9611;
Information International Inc.,
(310) 417-8400.

Virtual assignments highlight workshop

In the six years that the National Press Photographers Association has sponsored the Electronic Photojournalism Workshop (EPW), the scope and size of the annual event has expanded almost geometrically.

Originally envisioned as a way for a few photographers and photo editors to get experience with digital photography, the EPW now produces not only a printed version of its Electronic Times newspaper, but publishes on the World-Wide Web as well.

This year's event, Sept. 8-16 in Concord, Calif., will play host to 30 teams consisting of a photographer, editor-designer and observer. Each team covers a news story and handles the layout and production of all-digital pages.

Inviting aspects of EPW7 include:

  • A "virtual" assignment -- which allows photographers the world over to participate -- centers on welfare and poverty. Photojournalists are encouraged to illustrate this topic, write a story and design a page for inclusion in the Electronic Times.

  • "Virtual" editing will afford those not in Concord the ability to edit photos taken by the teams in California. A "loose first edit" of about 20 pictures will be uploaded onto the Internet; remote participants can edit the pictures and design a page for the Electronic Times, or design a layout for use on the EPW's World-Wide Web site.

  • A series of seminars will be held in conjunction with the workshop, including sessions aimed at production executives, system editors, librarians and on-line projects.

    The system editors seminar, for example, has topics including "The technological future of the newsroom," "Designing a newsroom system from the ground up" and "How to deal with organizational change."

    For more information on EPW, contact John Cornell, (516) 727-7791. For more information on the virtual projects, contact Ken Irby at (813) 821-9494, or e-mail Kurt Foss at kfoss@murrow.journalism.wisc.edu.

    -- dmc

    Bit bucket ...
    Honchos: At CMP Publications of Manhasset, N.Y. (purveyors of more than 15 fine publications, including InformationWeek, CommunicationsWeek and HomePC), Stephen Grande Sr. has been named vice president of manufacturing. Grande, a seven-year CMP vet, had been director of manufacturing. ... At the Bakersfield Californian, three big events -- Larry Arnt has been named production manager (after 10 years with the paper, most recently has building and fleet services superintendent), Lon Cooper has been named publishing systems manager (the longtime Dallas Morning News photographer had most recently been imaging department manager) and Tracey Davis has been named network/operations manager (he'd been a systems analyst). ... At the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Daniel Persiani has been named vice president for technology and information services; he'd spent 15 years at the Pittsburgh Press and two at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. ...

    New media mavens: Did we forget to say that Charles Wright has moved to the Star Tribune of Minneapolis? Wright, the longtime editorial systems manager at the Fresno (Calif.) Bee (he was a real reporter and editor before that), became technical coordinator of Star Tribune Online late last year. ... Also at the Star Tribune, Ben Taylor has been named new products leader of the paper's Reader Customer Unit; Taylor had been director of strategic planning at Gruner+Jahr Publishing USA in New York. ... And at the New York Times, Martin Nisenholtz has been named president of a new subsidiary that will create new digital services centered on the newspaper's content; Nisenholtz had most recently been with Ameritech Corp., but before that was with Ogilvy and Mather Direct Worldwide. He reports to both the paper's executive editor, Joseph Lelyveld, and the paper's president, Russell Lewis. ...

    Photo guru: In a first for the Poynter Institute of St. Petersburg, Fla., Ken Irby has been named an associate responsible for the institute's photojournalism leadership and ethics seminars. Irby, the former deputy director of photography at Newsday of Long Island, N.Y., had been with the paper since 1988; previously he was assistant photo editor/graphics at the Oakland Press in Michigan. ...

    Vendor variables: At the Associated Press, Suzanne Hanlon has been named director of special photo services; she'd been manager of PhotoExpress. ... At Edgil Associates of North Chelmsford, Mass., a bunch of new hires: Cheri Birdsall has been named sales executive for the Northwest and Southeast United States and Canada (she'd been a salesperson at Atex), Linda Carbone has been named customer service engineer (she'd been a technical support specialist at Trinzic Inc.) and David Jolly has been named European sales agent (he'd been with Atex for 11 years in Europe). ... At Mission Critical Technologies of Concord, Mass., Bernard Olmsted has been named president and chief executive; Olmsted had previously been at Xylogics Inc. for five years (most recently as senior vice president of sales and marketing) and previously had been with ECRM and Codex. Olmsted reports to Board Chairman Richard Rosmarin. ... At Monotype Systems Inc. of Rolling Meadows, Ill., Brian Sundquist has been named customer service manager; Sundquist is a seven-year veteran of Monotype. He replaces Phil Darling, who has moved to Phoenix to pursue "other interests." ... At Printware Inc. of St. Paul, Minn., Roberta Wilson has been named marketing specialist; she'd been with Bausch & Lomb Hearing Systems Division. ...

    Confabs: The annual international conference on interactive and computer graphics technologies is Siggraph '95, Aug. 6-11 in Los Angeles. For more information, call (312) 321-6830. ... Macworld Boston, the summer version of the big Macintosh trade show and conference, is Aug. 8-11; for details call (617) 361-8000. ... If you're into programming, maybe you should drop by Object World, the center of the object-oriented programming world; it's Aug. 13-17 here in San Francisco; call (508) 879-6700 to acquire the object of your desire. ... The On-line Networking Exposition and BBS Convention -- One Bbscon -- is Aug. 16-20 in Tampa, Fla.; call (303) 693-5253 for on-line info. ... The Scitex Graphic Arts Users Association (Sgaua) will hold its annual meeting and trade show Aug. 26-29 at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, Calif. With more than 50 pre-press exhibitors and 1000 attendees, the meeting centers on the theme "Fresh Horses" (a term adopted from Pony Express days). To saddle up, call (800) 858-0489. ... The Seybold Seminars' Windows Solutions conference will be Aug. 29-Sept. 1 in S.F.; call (415) 578-6900. ... #

    From THE COLE PAPERS, August 1995, Copyright © 1995, All Rights Reserved.

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    Modified date: 08/ 3/1995, 12:31:26 PM.
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