Fall-out from the Oric and Prism collapses has claimed another victim. OE Ltd (OEL) has gone into receivership and the chances of the company being saved look slim.

OEL first came to prominence as the designer and builder of Prism's VTX5000 modem, which won the Peripheral of the Year award last year. OEL also builds communications products for a variety of other micros, and recently produced units for the QL.

But the problems of other companies took their toll as the UK micro industry went into the doldrums earlier this year. "We had a loss of revenue due to the Prism contract being withdrawn," said OEL chief Martin Amsell, "And there were bad debts from that and Oric. In January we were, as a company, insolvent."

"The company has a lot of potential but it has no time," he said. "If we had weeks rather than days we'd have a chance. There have been quite a few interested parties, but time is of the essence if somebody is to pick the company up whole."

Modem House, which is on the verge of acquiring manufacturing rights to the Prism products from that company's receiver, is a possible purchaser. Sinclair could also have an interest in seeing OEL survive, as would Case, the big communications company for which OEL is producing a unit called the Hacker Cracker.

But in the long term, companies like OEL need financial backers who understand the industry. Its existing shareholders got the jitters at the crucial moment, Amsell said.