Dataproducts’ Headquarters, Other Real Estate Are for Sale

Dataproducts Corp., which is trying to fight off a hostile investment group that has said it wants to buy the company, announced Thursday that it is putting its Woodland Hills headquarters and other real estate up for sale.

The maker of computer printers said it will distribute the net proceeds from the sale to shareholders. Dataproducts added that it is considering broader changes for the company that could include spinning off businesses, a financial restructuring and taking on partners in its “solid-ink jet” printer business, which sells a new kind of computer printer that sprays melted ink onto a page.

The investment group that wants to buy Dataproducts, DPC Acquisition Partners in New York, which owns about 8% of the company’s shares, said Thursday that it will start soliciting stockholders to oust Dataproducts’ seven directors and replace them with a reduced board of six of its own nominees. Dataproducts would not comment on the group’s plan.

The group, led by John K. Castle, the former chief executive of the Wall Street firm Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, has yet to make an offer for the company, but late last year informally told Dataproducts officials that it would be willing to pay $15 a share for the company, or about $300 million. Dataproducts has been shopping the company around recently to potential buyers, but no offers have been announced.

The property put up for sale includes two parcels totaling nearly 22 acres in Woodland Hills’ Warner Center area, where the company has its headquarters, an engineering facility and a printer manufacturing plant.

DPC Acquisition has already struck a deal to sell the property for $57 million to Trizec Development, a large Canadian real estate company, should it buy Dataproducts. Dataproducts Chairman Jack C. Davis said the company has an appraisal that values the land for more, but he declined to say how much. He said the company has no asking price for the Woodland Hills property because it wants to get as much for it as possible.

In addition to the Woodland Hills property, Dataproducts is trying to sell 46 acres in New Hampshire, where it closed a plant last year, that is listed at $14 million. It also is putting up for sale 25 acres of undeveloped land in Austin, Tex.

Dataproducts’ stock closed at $13.75 a share in trading on the American Stock Exchange, down 75 cents.