Acorn is pulling out of home computing in the wake of Olivetti's rescue act last week.

Acorn clearly intends to turn off the Electron's life-support system. A company statement following the takeover spoke of the need to "further reduce Acorn's dependence on the volatile home computer market". Chris Curry hinted as much last month when the price of the Electron was slashed by £70.

The BBC Micro, under the new regime, will revert to its specialist educational status. Elserino Piol, Olivetti's man in charge of corporate strategies, aims to make the machine the world's leading educational micro.

Neither Acorn not its new Italian owner would say anything definite last week about individual machines but the writing has been on the wall for the Electron since Christmas.

According to Signor Piol, Olivetti had been on the lookout for possible "partners" in the UK for the past six months. Acorn may prove particularly suitable since Italy has as yet no equivalent to the BBC scheme.

Olivetti's plans for the BBC machine itself are to capitalise on its value as an educational micro. Commenting that the education market lacks a leader, Signor Piol said: "This leader could be Acorn." Direct support for the BBC Micro will probably be channelled into education, and other types of user may have to rely on third parties.

The new Acorn is split into four parts: education/training, scientific/industrial, business, and consumer. Ninety more jobs will be lost on top of the 30 that have already gone.

The fate of the ABC series of business machines is uncertain. Acorn could become a manufacturer of systems to which other suppliers would add value before selling them under their own labels. But Olivetti already has a line of competitive business micros, and through its links with the US giant AT&T has access to other types of office systems. Just as Olivetti has the option to raise its Acorn stakes above 50 per cent, AT&T will eventually own 40 per cent of Olivetti.

The BBC said that it was "entirely satisfied" with the agreement between Acorn and Olivetti. Asked whether it saw any inconsistency in the British Broadcasting Corporation's name being attached to an Italian-owned microcomputer, it repeats its entire satisfaction.

But ACT said that the BBC's position was untenable. "People really must understand that Olivetti has control of the company," said ACT's Peter Oldershaw. His boss Roger Foster said last week: "We will certainly be getting in touch with the BBC to suggest, politely, that the time has come for a change."

Sir Clive Sinclair would also welcome a change in BBC policy but his comments were more sympathetic. "It's a great relief - it would have been a tragedy if Acorn hadn't managed to re-structure," he said.