Alpha Micro’s Top Shareholder Seeks Control : Electronics: Alphabet Technologies, holding company for a German computer maker, increases its stake to 25%.
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SANTA ANA — Alpha Microsystems said Tuesday that its largest shareholder has increased its stake in Alpha Micro and has disclosed plans to gain control of the business computer maker.
New York-based Alphabet Technologies Inc. has increased its stake in Alpha Micro from 21% to 25%, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Alphabet also said it plans to seek control of Alpha Micro’s seven-member board of directors.
David A. Young, chief financial officer of Alpha Micro, said the company plans to grant two board seats to Alphabet representatives, but he said it has no plans to grant Alphabet majority control, or four seats.
“They have indicated they would like to seek control,” Young said.
Alpha Micro disclosed on May 17 that Alphabet, a holding company formed by Gisbert Fischer to purchase Alpha Micro stock, had purchased a 21% stake, or 600,000 shares, in Alpha Micro from two company founders. Fischer is chief executive of Beta Systems Computer AG, a publicly held computer company in Frankfurt, Germany.
Young said that for several years Fischer has sought an agreement in which Beta Systems products would be distributed in the United States through Alpha Micro’s network of 600 dealers. Under the agreement, Alpha Micro’s products would be distributed in Europe by Beta Systems. Young said Fischer has not elaborated on that plan.
If Alphabet pursues a proxy fight to gain control of Alpha Micro’s board at the annual meeting Aug. 23, it would be the second time in less than a year that an outside company has attempted to take over Alpha Micro.
In November, New York-based Aril Group launched a tender offer to buy Alpha Micro for $11 million. Alpha Micro officials accepted the bid as a fair price, but the Aril Group withdrew the bid in December because it could not arrange financing.
Alphabet purchased 600,000 of Alpha Micro’s 2.8 million shares outstanding in several transactions in May. Alphabet paid $1.6 million, or $4 a share, for 400,000 shares owned by Robert Hitchcock, founder and former chairman of Alpha Micro. Hitchcock retired from the company for health reasons.
