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A small Irvine company has been picked to supply up to six million personal computers to schools and businesses in the Soviet Union and to assist the Soviets in establishing their own PC industry.
The Phoenix Group International, a high-technology consulting company, beat out 16 other companies for the job because it agreed to financial terms favorable to the Soviets and to help them build their own PCs rather them buying them from abroad, Soviet officials said Monday at a New York press conference.
Soviet officials said the joint venture with Phoenix is part of a government plan to place three million PCs in Soviet classrooms and three million more in Soviet businesses by 1994.
As the Soviet leaders try to improve computer literacy throughout the society, U.S. and other Western computer makers have viewed the huge Soviet market with much eagerness. But the market has been slow to develop, due largely to tight U.S export controls and the Soviets' limited access to foreign currencies, which limits their ability to buy technology from abroad.
Phoenix Chairman Charles W. Missler, a former chief executive of Irvine-based Western Digital Corp., Orange County's largest high-tech firm, said the joint venture provides "a very substantial opportunity for us."
Phoenix officials declined to estimate the amount of sales they expect the deal to generate or the impact on local employment. However, Jack B. Spencer, Phoenix's chief financial officer, said the company "hopes for an expanded relationship and a...
