History (1993): Exclusive Agreement for 3M to Manufacture and Market IBM QIC Cartridges

3M (St. Paul, MN) has signed an agreement with IBM Corp. under which it will manufacture, market and distribute IBM QIC products throughout North America.

The exclusive one-year agreement provides for the marketing and distribution of four 3M QICs – including the DC 6150, DC 6320, DC 6525 and Magnus 1.2GB data cartridge products – plus a 5.25-inch data cartridge drive cleaning kit, all marketed under the IBM brand name.

Big Blue offers QIC drives with its PS/2 series of personal computers, AS/400 mid-range systems and RISC System/6000 family of RISC-based workstations.

Dave Ferraresi, 3M marketing manager for tape backup products, said the new agreement means that the commercial distribution market will have a single source for both IBM and 3M brand QIC.

“This agreement is really about 3M serving as a single source for two respected brands,” he commented. “With single-source merchandising as a backdrop, we fully anticipate a substantial increase in distributor-based sales of these products during the life of the agreement.“

One other agreement under which 3M markets and distributes IBM products covers 3490 half-inch tape cartridges for IBM’s ES/9000 and AS/400 customers.

In 1989, 3M acquired IBM’s 3480 cartridge plant in Tucson, AZ.

This article is an abstract of news published on the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter on issue ≠63, published on April 1993.