AnyBus Technologies

CMS Enhancements Inc.

Company type	Public (from 1986)
Industry	Computer hardware
Predecessor	Complete Management Systems
Founded	July 1983 (1983-07)
Founder	Jamshed "Jim" Farooquee, Mason Tarkeshian, Tom Ong
Defunct	1993 (1993)
Fate	Restructured and rebranded as AmeriQuest Technologies
Headquarters	Irvine, California , United States
Area served	United States, Netherlands, Singapore, Pakistan
Key people	Jamshed "Jim" Farooquee (founder and CEO until 1993), Hal Clark (CEO from 1993)
Products	Internal and external hard disk drives, tape drives, graphics cards, memory modules, uninterruptible power supplies, personal computers (briefly)
Number of employees	549 (peak), 215 (after layoffs in early 1990s) (early 1990s)

CMS Enhancements Inc.—initially known as Complete Management Systems—was a U.S.-based computer firm located in Irvine, California. Established in 1983, the company specialized in producing internal and external hard disk drives along with tape drives throughout the 1980s. These hard drives, predominantly manufactured by Seagate, were tailored for systems such as the Macintosh (marketed under the MacLite label), IBM PC, and Compaq Deskpro.

After experiencing financial difficulties due to unsuccessful ventures into selling its own personal computer models, CMS restructured and rebranded itself as AmeriQuest Technologies in 1993.

1983–1990

CMS was established in July 1983 in Irvine by Jamshed "Jim" Farooquee, Mason Tarkeshian, and Tom Ong. Farooquee, serving as the main founder, invested $12,000 of his own money to launch the company. The firm went public in 1986 and saw its share price reach a peak of $36 in early 1987.

The company expanded swiftly, achieving $133 million in revenue by 1987. By 1989, CMS’s product line had grown to include over 300 storage devices—encompassing tape drives—and had branched out into graphics cards, memory modules, and uninterruptible power supplies under its own brand. Although many products were rebranded or modified OEM components (with Seagate hard drives being a notable example), CMS began manufacturing its own tape drives following the acquisition of North Atlantic Industries' Data Storage Products division in April 1988. This purchase brought intellectual property rights, inventory, tooling equipment, and facilities located in Singapore (10,000 sq ft) and Long Island (5,000 sq ft), enabling CMS to develop proprietary hardware. The first outcome of these facilities was the LiteTape—a portable tape drive with a 40-MB capacity designed for PC-compatible laptops—introduced in 1989.

CMS operated out of a 73,000-square-foot plant in Tustin and expanded further by acquiring an additional 50,000-square-foot building in 1988. That same year, it opened a branch office in the Netherlands. By late 1988, Tarkeshian and Ong had left the company. Sales climbed to $200 million by June 1989—a 32% increase—with net profits reaching $4.8 million, nearly doubling from the previous year.

1990–1997

In the early 1990s, CMS faced considerable obstacles. Defective hard drives supplied by Seagate in late 1988 caused numerous return merchandise authorizations (RMAs) and refund claims. Moreover, integrating North Atlantic DSP proved overly complicated, leading to multi-million dollar write-offs by 1992 when CMS had a global workforce of 440 employees. A price war within the external storage market between 1990 and 1991 further diminished their market share, resulting in an $8.5 million loss by mid-1991. In an attempt to diversify, CMS partnered with Korean manufacturer TriGem in 1991 to produce CMS-branded personal computers; however, intense pricing competition from Compaq during 1992 caused this venture to fail after limited production and another $8.5 million loss by June that year.

To prevent insolvency, CMS dramatically reduced its staff from 549 to 215 and divested manufacturing operations in Singapore and Pakistan. Under Farooquee’s guidance, the company refocused on hard drive production and returned to profitability by October 1992. In December 1993, Hal Clark succeeded Farooquee as CEO while Farooquee remained on the board.

Later in 1992, CMS renewed efforts in personal computing by contracting IBM for motherboard production and launching AnyBus Technologies, which offered systems compatible with multiple bus architectures such as ISA, VESA Local Bus, and OPTiLocal bus. However, following restructuring in February 1994 due to monthly losses of approximately $100,000 on AnyBus operations, this division was closed. The company rebranded as AmeriQuest Technologies and transitioned toward a value-added reseller approach focusing on Unix-based graphical workstation markets identified as promising growth sectors.

The drive manufacturing segment operated as a subsidiary until it was spun off in 1997 under Kenneth Burke’s leadership. CMS Products continued operations out of Costa Mesa, California, while AmeriQuest relocated its headquarters to Florida. As of 2022, CMS Products remains active as a provider specializing in data security and backup solutions.