History (1995): Anacomp to Fall Under Chapter XI?

“Although Anacomp expects to negotiate an agreement, there can be no assurances that an acceptable solution will be reached, a Chapter XI bankruptcy proceeding is a possibility.”

This sentence was pulled from the company’s second quarter 10-Q filing with the SEC, and revealed by Micrographics Newsletter .

Anacomp Inc. (Indianapolis, IN) is thus considering filing for Chapter XI. For the second quarter of its fiscal year, the 4,100-employee company recorded a net loss of $8.2 million, compared to a net income of $403,000 for the same period a year earlier.

Another alarming factor, president and CEO Mark Woods has left the company “to pursue other interests.” His replacement is Lang Lowrey, 41, former president of Anacomp Magnetics Group. It was Lowrey who instigated the buyout of Graham Magnetics last year and led its division to profitability.

Anacomp is in the micrographics (COM, cameras, readers-printers, duplicators, duplicating films, microfilm scanners, services- bureaux, etc.) business, where it is the worldwide leader.

But the market has already begun to stabilize.

Its strange policy could be described as the following: “If there was only one of us remaining, we would be that one.”

When you are alone, of course, it is easier to control prices. But the use of microforms has dropped off over the past few years, certainly with the competition created by optical disks, also the root of Anacornp’s problems.

“A prime candidate in the rumor mill was the sale of Anacomp’s magnetic division,” wrote Micrographics Newsletter.

This article is an abstract of news published on the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter on issue 89, published on June 1995.

Note: Anacomp continues to be currently registered under the ticker OTCPINK:ANMP.