It's a familiar scene for Binghamton residents: an out of town suitor comes in, buys a local company for its customer base and then shuts the factory after denying that was their original intent.

It happened at Anitec Image Corp. Hundreds of jobs were eliminated. That First Ward industrial site has been idle for eight years.

Local investors weren't going to let that happen to IBM Corp.'s birthplace. When they first got wind in 2002 that IBM was attempting to abandon the 1.4-million-square-foot plant, they feared the worst. The investors, and others, firmly believed that IBM and the company that was ready to buy the microelectronics factory would abandon it following the sale.

The locals came in and quickly cobbled together a deal, with New York's help. Because of their quick work, a facility that would otherwise have been gathering dust, or worse, still operates, albeit well below capacity.

Endicott Interconnect Technologies carries on the proud manufacturing tradition that IBM was all too ready to jettison. IBM still maintains a presence, though drastically reduced, in Endicott, employing about 1,500 people in its Global Services, among other divisions. How long that lasts is anyone's guess.

When Gov. George E. Pataki first announced IBM's deal to sell microelectronics manufacturing to local investors, it was celebrated. Jobs were saved.

In the years that followed, Endicott Interconnect, and its owners have been the subject of some ridicule and suspicion in the community. They haven't lived up to their promises, critics charge. Neighbors and friends have been laid off from the company. No one can dispute it. That's true and tragic.

But it should always be noted that the new owners saved a factory that was ever so close to becoming a blight on the landscape. The community should be thankful that the plant still has some life. The immediate outcome in 2002 could have been far worse.

If the management, owners and politicians who engineered this deal are guilty of anything, it's of creating unrealistically high expectations and overselling prospects of the successor company. Optimism should have been tempered by reality. The investors, the managers and the politicians should have acknowledged from the outset that while the sale was a victory for the community, the hard work was only about to begin.

The deal between IBM and local investors brought a sense of relief from people who knew how close the plant came to becoming surplus property. But on the day of the announcement, comments should have been infused with a more somber tone than was evident at the time, noting the difficult task that would lie ahead. Honesty is always the best policy.

Anyone with knowledge of the industry would have known that making a go of this operation would take more business savvy than displayed by your typical Apprentice contestant. You just don't turn an IBM orphan into a thriving business overnight. The electronics contract manufacturing industry was already experiencing huge amounts of overcapacity when this deal was sealed, causing even industry leaders to close domestic operations and move them to the Far East. It's evident, from the first few years of operation, that some did not fully appreciate the magnitude of the assignment.

Contracts that were so plentiful in 1999 and 2000, which enabled Endicott to produce some of its most profitable years in recent history, were nonexistent two years later. It's not easy running an electronics manufacturing operation in the United States. Competition from low-cost regions is fierce. Profit margins are razor thin.

Owners and managers also miscalculated on the SureScan project. Promising 700 jobs when the company announced its joint venture on bomb-detection equipment was impulsive, at best. Endicott Interconnect should have acknowledged the dicey nature of the enterprise, and again tempered their optimism with a bit of reality.

Making Endicott Interconnect work will take a Herculean effort.

But it's clear that they are determined to do so. Much will depend on management's ability to carve out a profitable niche, producing electronic components for the defense and medical industry, two sectors hesitant to move their work overseas.

The company has made mistakes. They are the first to admit that it hasn't been easy. But there are still people working at the site, which is heckuva lot better than what was the only alternative four years ago. The last thing we need is another Anitec site.

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