Acquires Maker of Tape Backup Systems : CMS Enhancements to Expand Its Line

CMS Enhancements Inc. of Tustin said that it has agreed to acquire privately held Tallgrass Technologies Corp. of Overland Park, Kan., for an undisclosed amount of stock and cash.

CMS, which manufactures and markets disk storage systems, printers, add-on circuit boards and other enhancement products for personal computers, said the Tallgrass acquisition will expand its product line to include tape backup systems.

“It was an area that we had a strategic plan to enter into more aggressively,” said Allen Taylor, CMS vice president of marketing.

“What the Tallgrass acquisition does is buy us time. It allows us to enter the tape backup market much more quickly, because we don’t have to develop the products from scratch.”

Founded in 1981, the same year that IBM introduced its personal computer, Tallgrass was one of the first companies to develop magnetic tape data storage systems for personal computers. It has also developed products for linking a number of personal computers into networks.

CMS, which distributes its enhancement products through more than 1,000 dealers, is experiencing dramatic sales growth. Taylor said the company expects to report sales of more than $100 million for the fiscal year ended June 30, compared with $41 million a year earlier and $10 million the preceding year.

The Tallgrass acquisition is subject to approval of the boards of both firms.