Touchstone Names New Chief, Plans Acquisition

Touchstone Software Corp.--the troubled Huntington Beach maker of PC diagnostic tools--named its fourth chief executive in seven months Thursday and announced its intention to acquire privately held Unicore Software Inc.

Touchstone expects to relocate its executive offices to the East Coast after the deal is completed, said Ray Norberte, a spokesman from Touchstone’s office of investor relations.

Terms of the transaction weren’t disclosed. No layoffs are expected at either company because of the acquisition, officials said. Touchstone plans to shrink its 21-person staff through attrition.

Unicore, based in Massachusetts, develops and distributes Year 2000 and other software tools. It has a staff of about 15 people, Norberte said.

“We don’t expect any major changes for about a year,” Norberte said. “Even after that, we’ll still keep a local presence, perhaps with our sales and accounting staff.”

Unicore founder and President Pierre A. Narath, who would become Touchstone’s largest shareholder after the deal, has been named chief executive of Touchstone.

Former Touchstone CEO Larry Jordan left the position last July “to pursue other opportunities” and became chairman of the Touchstone board, a position he later resigned from. Jordan was hired by Touchstone in 1996 to find new technologies and businesses for the software maker to acquire.

At the time, founder Larry Dingus--who had been chairman--stepped in as interim CEO.

In August, the company named software veteran Kenneth S. Forbes II president and chief executive. Throughout the summer and early fall, Touchstone laid off a third of its staff--or 11 people from its then-32-member work force--as part of a series of cost-cutting efforts.

But Forbes unexpectedly resigned from the company as part of the deal to acquire Unicore.

Forbes could not be reached for comment. Touchstone officials declined to elaborate on the executive change.

Touchstone’s stock price rose 22 cents Thursday, closing at 94 cents a share.

The acquisition of Unicore, which still requires regulatory approval, is expected to close Jan. 31.