CARL Corporation, which was purchased in October 1995 by Knight Ridder Information (KRI) is now for sale along with a whole division of which Dialog is the largest single component. The parent company has decided to refocus on the newspaper business, and to help raise approximately $1.6 billion for the purchase of several newspapers is selling this division valued at about $500 million. Dialog is known to be coveted by as many as nine major companies. The sale is expected to be consumated within the next few months. Whether or not CARL will continue to be a part of the whole package or will subsequently be sold to a third party will have to be played out.
Knight Ridder had originally been attracted by CARL's Uncover document delivery product which complements Dialog.
As recently as a few months ago, Knight Ridder denied any intention of selling CARL.
CARL's product development schedule is not expected to be affected by the sale. The migration to the NT operating system should be complete by the end of 1998. The change in operating system will make the CARL product more scalable, and will also allow it to operate on a wider range of hardware platforms. Tandem, the only hardware line on which CARL has run, is being acquired by Compaq-a company with a wide range of servers suitable for smaller libraries. Unlike some vendors in the industry, CARL, will not charge existing customers for the change in operating system.
[Contact: CARL Corporation, 3801 East Florida, #300, Denver, CO 80210; 303-758-3030; FAX 303-758-0606]
