Bull takes two roads to recovery

Bull plans to divide itself into a services company, similar to ailing ICL, and a separate infrastructure and systems operation, which will include its struggling server division.

One UK analyst doubted the likelihood of the move working out. He said: "That old dog of a company? No one can count the number of reorganisations and restructurings [Bull has had] - why this one should work, I don't know."

Bull was nationalised and promoted as a French alternative to IBM, but it never employed as many people as IBM France, nor was it ever profitable in commercial terms. Shareholders are the French government, Japanese giant NEC, France Telecom and Motorola with approximately a 17 per cent stake each.

Last year the company reported losses of E288m. It is to sell off assets potentially worth E400 million in the next year. The company has been looking for a partner for its server business for over a year but failed to find one which would concede control of a joint operation to Bull.