Computer Companies To Merge -- Bellevue's Attachmate Links With Georgia Firm

Bellevue-based Attachmate Corp. said today it will merge with Digital Communications Associates Inc. of Alpharetta, Ga. Terms of the deal were not announced.

Both companies are private and both specialize in hardware and software products that connect personal computers to mainframes.

The combined company will use the Attachmate name. Frank Pritt, who founded Attachmate in 1983, will be chairman and chief executive officer. James Lindner, DCA's chairman, president and chief executive, will become president and chief operating officer.

Attachmate said each company expects to have about $200 million in sales this year. Each has about 1,100 employees.

Many of DCA's employees will move to Bellevue, which will be home for the company's combined headquarters, sales and marketing operations. Dennis Sullivan, an Attachmate spokesman, said some employees will remain in Georgia.

The transaction is expected to close by the end of next month.

DCA, founded 22 years ago, is the originator of products to connect mainframe computers to smaller computers in remote locations. In 1981, it introduced the first products to connect PCs to IBM mainframes.

It once was a public company, but it was acquired last year by a consortium of investor groups in New York and Palo Alto, Calif.

DCA's and Attachmate's main product lines, named Irma and Extra!, respectively, are head-to-head competitors, Sullivan said. Both lines will be continued.

He said the main benefits of the combination will be seen in international marketing, where one company's geographical strengths offset the other's weaknesses. Attachmate has a strong customer base among users of Digital Equipment computers, where DCA is weak, Sullivan said. On the other hand, Attachmate has had trouble penetrating the Apple Macintosh market, where DCA is very strong.