Blumenthal said he’s still optimistic about savings.

At a London press conference, Burroughs President W. Michael Blumenthal said the combined Burroughs and Sperry Corp. will shed at least $1.5 billion worth of assets, but he again declined to identify which. He said “substantial rationalization” was possible in semiconductor and other component manufacturing sectors, and other savings would come from consolidations of field support operations, new customer marketing and areas concerned with systems networking.