Cullen Completes Takeout of Technology Assets
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Cullen Completes Takeout of Technology Assets from USOP
Auckland, 18 September 2000
-- Cullen Investment today announced that it will acquire
the residual 40 percent interest in businesses in the Blue
Star Business Solutions Group from North American company US
Office Products (USOP) for an undisclosed sum.
The
agreement will see Cullen holding 100 percent of the
information technology and telecommunications companies
including gen-i (formerly Wang), Cogent Communications, Ubix
Document Solutions, Hart Candy, Auldhouse Computer Training,
and Leasing Solutions. Cullen had previously acquired a 60
percent interest in the companies from USOP in December
1999.
“I’m delighted to have concluded this transaction,”
said Cullen Executive Chairman Eric Watson. “This will
enable the individual companies to grow their business with
clear direction and focus under the control of a single
shareholder. It will also make it easier to expand the
businesses both operationally and geographically, something
which would have been difficult under the previous ownership
structure. This acquisition, when placed alongside Cullen’s
other technology and telecommunications investments, gives
us a very broad interest in the product and services that
make up the engine room of the new economy. And we believe
on that basis it will be good for both staff and customers
of these
companies.”
ENDS