Archive Planning to Buy Florida Firm That Also Makes Tape Drives

Archive Corp. has agreed in principle to acquire a private, Florida-based, computer tape-drive maker for an undisclosed sum.

Maynard Electronics is a 7-year-old company that makes tape drives for International Business Machines Corp. personal computers and compatible machines. Like Archive’s products, Maynard’s tape drives are used to make copies of data stored on hard-disk drives.

Financial details of the sale were not disclosed. Archive said only that the deal will not involve the issuance of new Archive stock.

“The products and market served are complementary in all aspects,” said B.J. Rone, Archive’s vice president of finance and administration.

Maynard had sales of about $16 million for the last 6 months of 1988. Sales figures for the full year were unavailable.