Cash Box
June 12, 1982

3M Buys Out Discovision Pilot Plant

DiscoVision Assoc, continues to sell off its remaining properties as 3M last week announced that it had purchased DVA’s pilot plant in its home base of Costa Mesa, Calif. In February, if you recall, DVA sold its interest in Universal Pioneer Corp. (UPC) to Pioneer Electronics, making it sole owner of UPC’s optical videodisc and player production facilities in Japan (Cash Box, Feb. 13). DVA was also set to close down its Carson, Calif, plant, but when Pioneer couldn’t duplicate R-rated material at its Kofu plant, it purchased that operation as well. A spokesman for DVA at the time noted that this signaled a transition for the company from manufacturing to portfolio management, adding that personnel would be reduced to 5-10 people, but many suspected that they were merely downplaying their quiet dissolution. When questioned as to whether the recent sale of the pilot plant to 3M was an indication that DVA was being phased out completely, DVA financial vice president Jams Thiel said last week, “I think that’s quite evident.” It has even been rumored that IBM pulled out of the joint venture with MCA, but there has been no offcial confirmation of that from MCA. As for the future of the Costa Mesa facility, which was constructed in the latter part of 1981, 3M Optical Recording Project manager Lloyd A. Troeltzsch stated that the company will not be operating the plant at its present location and instead plans to move the “assets” of the 8,000 sq. ft, facility to 3M headquarters in St. Paul, Minn. “Basically, we have purchased an environment which gives us an opportunity to expand our development work relating to the videodisc and other optical recording technologies,” said Troeltzsch.