PHYSICS

As part of an ongoing expansion of its activities in the storage segment, transtec has acquired a 44 percent equity share in Lapistor Ltd, a British company located in Leeds, Yorkshire, which will assume the activities of Lapis Solutions Ltd, likewise located in Leeds. Explaining the move, transtec's CEO Dieter Weisshaar, said, "transtec's participation in Lapistor will provide it with additional technological expertise that will enhance profitability and ultimately benefit customers. "Access to the research-and-development carried out by Lapistor Ltd buttresses transtec's position as one of the ten largest server and storage producers in Europe," continued Weisshaar. The enhanced research-and-development know-how resulting from the Lapistor participation will reinforce transtec's "three-pillar strategy" resting on OEMs, system vendors and direct customers. Recently, transtec acquired the German firm Triple Stor which specialised in storage, one of transtec's strategic business areas. This allowed transtec to bolster its storage activities and also to expand the indirect business activities. Whereas Triple Stor sold resellers and system vendors servers RAID systems through its indirect business, Lapistor produces its own branded RAID systems for OEMs, among them transtec. For its part transtec intends to continue selling its own RAID systems to selected customers. Lapistor offers a wide palette of SCSI and Fibre Channel RAID systems based on various controller designs. In autumn of this year it will introduce an entirely new 4- and 16-port SATA RAID series providing significantly higher price/performance ratios and superior redundancy. The acquisition of Triple Stor coupled with its the share in Lapistor provide immediate benefits to transtec by allowing it to better supply various market channels. In the longer term transtec's technological expertise will also profit from these moves. The Lapistor participation will also further an expansion in transtec's dealings with OEMs, who notably require a high level of support. For Lapistor, close co-operation with transtec means that its innovative technology can be more readily integrated into new products. Both Triple Stor and Lapistor have a variety of technological partnerships throughout Europe. In the near future transtec will unveil a new partnership strategy intended to expand its activities throughout Europe.