All the latest quantum computer articles

See the latest stories on quantum computing from eeNews Europe

Friday, September 01, 2006

Selling out

US board maker Tek Micro has opened a design centre in Malvern in the UK in a veiled takeover of part of a UK company that used to be funded by the tax payer.

Tek had been working closely with the real time embedded division of Qinetiq, which is the technology and research arm of the UK's Ministry of Defence. It was partly privatised with investment from the Carlyle Group and floated on the London stock exchange in January.
A new design centre - great news! Except that the new design centre is actually part of the Qinetiq group.
So either Tek has recruited the 5 design guys from Qinetiq, who all resigned at the same time (I really don't think so) as the press release says
TEK Microsystems Limited initially includes a staff of five senior engineers all formerly of QinetiQ.
). Or there was a transfer of the group to it's partner Tek. If that's the case, then why pitch it as a new design centre. If it's a sale or a closing of the division by Qinetiq, then say so (they haven't said that, but this kind of thing is not exactly good governance for a public company either).

The design team has done some really good work, including the VITA55 proposal for linking FPGAs in real time signal processing applications, and they are an asset to Tek Micro.

I welcome a new design centre in the UK whole heartedly, but let it be a new design centre. Similarly, it's great for a very bright team to stay together and be productive with, hopefully, more investment. Just don't try to pull a fast one, please. At least some of us notice.

More to come on this one, I think

No comments: