Resdel Negotiating Contract With AT
A day after Resdel Industries Inc. last month announced a $1-million order from AT&T;, the telecommunications giant notified Resdel that it was canceling the order and demanded the immediate return of $238,000 of an advance payment.
Resdel officials this week blamed the problem on a misunderstanding and said AT&T; has dropped its demand for repayment. An AT&T; official said, “We do have some problems” with Resdel, but declined to discuss it in detail.
The dispute over the AT&T; order is the latest problem to hit Phoenix Group International, Resdel’s parent company. Last week, reports surfaced that Phoenix Group’s deal to supply millions of personal computers to the Soviet Union might be in question. Company officials denied the Soviet transaction is in trouble.
On Nov. 21, a Resdel subsidiary, Resdel Communications, announced that it had received an order from AT&T; valued at more than $1 million to supply digital microwave radio equipment to the government of Kuwait.
The next day, AT&T;’s Federal Systems Division in North Carolina notified Resdel by letter that it was canceling the order and demanded that Resdel immediately return all but $2,000 of a $240,000 advance payment.
AT&T; said it wanted the money back because Resdel hadn’t ordered any materials for the radios, had spent only $2,000 on engineering services and had “corporate financial and manufacturing problems.” AT&T; made its request to Resdel in a Nov. 22 letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Times.
“In view of the internal Resdel conditions, AT&T; concludes that it is impossible to execute a formal contract at this time and requests the return of the unused amount of $238,000,” said M.G. Robinson, AT&T;’s manager for the Kuwait project, in the letter.
Asked about the AT&T; letter this week, Resdel issued a statement that said AT&T;’s request for return of the advance payment was based on “an erroneous perception communicated to AT&T; that Resdel Communications was neither fulfilling its obligations under the authorization nor intending to complete the program.”
Resdel said it has reached an agreement with AT&T; to continue work on the program.
Robinson said the company is negotiating a contract with Resdel. “AT&T; has never contended we are under contract” with Resdel, Robinson said. “We are negotiating, and we do have some problems.”
In another transaction involving a Phoenix Group International subsidiary, a company official said recently it does not have a signed contract to sell 6 million personal computers to the Soviet Union as part of a joint venture deal announced Sept. 11.
John French, president of Phoenix Group subsidiary American PC Corp. in Irvine, disclosed in a sworn statement filed Dec. 5 as part of a lawsuit that neither the parent company nor American PC has “ever received a contractual commitment pursuant to which they are entitled to sell 6 million personal computers” to the Soviet Union.
Bruce Rossiter, Phoenix’s executive vice president for legal affairs, said French’s statement was technically accurate but said the Soviet deal is going ahead as planned.
French’s statement was made in connection with a lawsuit filed in November against Phoenix Group and American PC by Michael Kolsy, American PC’s chairman. Kolsy alleges in the suit that Phoenix illegally tried to dilute his one-third ownership interest in American PC in a debt-for-stock conversion. A Phoenix official said Kolsy’s suit is “without merit.”
