Datagraphix Being Sold for $128 Million
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Anacomp Inc. of Indianapolis has disclosed something it withheld last month when it announced an agreement to purchase San Diego-based Datagraphix Inc., a computer output microfilm equipment manufacturer, from General Dynamics Corp.
That something is the purchase price: $128 million in cash.
At first glance, the price being paid by Anacomp, a micrographics services company, would seem a bargain in that it amounts to little more than half of Datagraphix’s 1986 sales of $241 million.
But Datagraphix’s profits, which last year totaled $10.1 million, were described as inadequate by several competitors interviewed last fall after General Dynamics announced its intentions to sell the subsidiary.
Another Datagraphix issue still is unclear: possible lay-offs at plants and offices in El Cajon and San Diego, where half of the company’s 2,500 employees work. When General Dynamics announced its intention to sell Datagraphix last fall, several of the competing executives predicted the new owner would have to trim payroll to increase profits.
On Monday, a Datagraphix spokesman who said he anticipates some lay-offs said no announcement will be made on the subject until after Anacomp formally takes possession of Datagraphix on March 18.
Anacomp Chairman Louis P. Ferrero, who was Datagraphix’s national sales manager before leaving to join Anacomp in 1975, said in a recent interview that lay-offs are possible.
