Alpharel-McGovern Deal Avoids Proxy Fight

Alpharel, the struggling Camarillo data storage firm, announced it has averted an expensive proxy battle with the company’s founder, Michael McGovern.

McGovern had launched the battle in an effort to regain control of the company, which he started in 1981. He was removed as the company’s chairman and chief executive by the board of directors in December but remained a member of the board.

At Alpharel’s May 24 annual meeting, McGovern had intended to ask shareholders to reinstate him to the company’s top two positions.

But last week the company said McGovern and Alpharel had struck a compromise. The company will recommend at its annual meeting that its current board step down. It then will nominate five independent directors. McGovern will continue to serve on the board as long as he is reelected by a majority of shareholders.

The company said it and McGovern will work together to find a permanent chief executive. Benjamin Brink, a consultant with H&Q; Technologies in San Francisco, has been serving as acting chief executive officer.

Alpharel also announced that it has been awarded a contract from Apple Computer to install an optical disk storage system that will control and distribute Apple’s engineering and technical documents worldwide. Neither company would reveal the value of the contract, but Brink said it could add more than $1 million to Alpharel’s revenue.

Last month, Alpharel reported it had lost more than $9 million on revenue of about $12 million for the fiscal year ended Dec. 31, 1987.