BAD NEWS!!! :(
sl...@cc.usu.edu
Commodore Scuttles Ship
WEST CHESTER, Pa. (AP) _ Commodore International Ltd., a pioneer in the
personal computer industry, said late Friday it is going out of business.
The company plans to transfer its assets to unidentified trustees ``for the
benefit of its creditors'' and has placed its major subsidiary,
Commodore Electronics Ltd., into voluntary liquidation.
``This is the initial phase of an orderly voluntary liquidation of both
companies,'' Commodore said in a brief statement. Company executives could
not immediately be reached Friday evening.
The company last month reported an $8.2 million loss for the quarter ending
Dec. 31 on sales of $70.1 million. A year earlier, Commodore lost
$77.2 million on sales of $237.7 million in the same period.
In the latest report, Commodore said financial limits had thwarted its ability
to supply products, leading to weakened sales. One of its new products, the
Amiga CD32 video game, had sold poorly in Europe, where the company did most
of its business. The company's net worth turned negative in the fiscal year
ended last June 30.
Its stock, which had traded at around $3 per share before the quarterly
results were announced last month, closed unchanged at 87 cents per share on
the New York Stock Exchange Friday.
Commodore started 40 years ago as a typewriter repair company in the Bronx.
Its extension to the adding machine business paved the way for it to make
calculators and then personal computers by the mid-1970s.
Commodore competed with Radio Shack for the first computers sold to homes and
co-founder Jack Tramiel became a highly-regarded figure in the fledgling PC
industry. By the early 1980s, it was overshadowed in the PC business by
Apple Computer Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. Software
manufacturers didn't create as much software for Commodore's Amiga line as it
did for Apple and IBM-compatible machines.
In recent years, most of Commodore's business was in Europe.
---------
Guys, this refers to Commodore International, Ltd. In other words,
Commodore UK, Commodore Asia/Pacific, Commodore Canada, Commodore Germany,
etc... are ALL going out of business. When the parent company folds,
the subsidiries have no choice but to go under. The parent company is
in charge of manufacturing of current systems and development of future
systems, and without the parent company, the subsidiaries have NOTHING to
sell.
+++++++
++++ Marc Barrett -MB-
++ IRC nick: Cyclone | e-mail: bar...@iastate.edu
+
Steve Bara
: Commodore Folds 04-29 0340
: Commodore Scuttles Ship
: ---------
Marc Barrett????? The idiot who lies about CDTV being discontinued 2 years
before it actually happened? Hmmm. How come you got this late on a Friday
Marc? Do you have some AP wire that nobody else has???? Or are you as full
of lies as you have always been? You know your BS can actually do damage
when people believe you, but most people have put you in their killfiles by
now. Even if this was true, why do you feel the need to share this here? This
is "marketplace", so unless you
can somehow convince your mom to give up her amiga 3000 and get a mac like
you want, then you're not really selling a computer, now are you? And when a
liquidation happens, there are STILL numerous chances for companies to
purchase the rights to continue manufacturing the amiga product line, so
your statements are pretty much COMPLETELY FALSE. You are lame and weak and
have chosen to rag on the amiga because it is a weak target for your lies,
but it still doesnt change the fact that many people use and enjoy amigas,
and will long after CBM is gone, and your own family has chosen to buy two
amigas regardless of your lame antics, so go home and look at your mom's
amiga and think about how it doesnt matter what happens to CBM as far as
that machine is concerned. Most amiga users are disinterested in CBM's
antics by now anyway, and are just waiting for somebody else to get the rights,
so your lies are more good news than bad. Go home, visit an amiga!
Steve Bara
Yes, CBM is out of business, and his article is correct, but his conclusions
are utter speculation. At this point several companies are in the process of
bidding for the remains of CBM, and we should see a real resolution of this
situation in about two weeks or so. Keep in mind that since CBM is out of
business, anyone who buys their factories and rights to the machines can begin
producing and selling machines immediately, with NO debt load. Since there is
a reasonable demand for these machines just as Toaster workstations, it
stands to reason and speculation that someone will choose to buy some of these
already tooled-up factories and bang out a few machines for those who want one.
The A5000 is currently in the breadboard prototype stage, so anyone who wants
to buy the rights and design a case could easily begin selling these within
this year. There are numerous other items, like Mpeg boards, DSP boards, and
graphics cards that CBM has developed to a point of completion but never put
on the market, so we may very well be seeing the results of CBM's R&D for
quite some time after they no longer exist. Since Hewlett Packard owns the
rights to the Amiga chipset, they could release an amiga clone tomorrow if
they chose to do so, although this is unlikely unless someone can prove a real
demand for these machines to them. In any case, there is a reasonable chance
that the technology that we know of as "Amiga" will still be developed and sold
for quite some time now if a demand exists for it. Certainly, anyone who buys
the rights to the technology would be able to sell some machines, since people
are STILL buying amigas after 10 years of ridiculous mismanagement by CBM.
Karen Wonsetler (CAS)
Edward T. Doyle
In article <1994Apr29.2...@cc.usu.edu>, sl...@cc.usu.edu writes...
>Commodore Folds 04-29 0340
>Commodore Scuttles Ship
>
Quick, get out while you can!
Sell me your 4000 for $500.00
(You pay shipping) :')
Seriously though, I'm waiting to see what happens next.
Ed
Amron Lucas
> Guys, this refers to Commodore International, Ltd. In other words,
> Commodore UK, Commodore Asia/Pacific, Commodore Canada, Commodore Germany,
> etc... are ALL going out of business. When the parent company folds,
> the subsidiries have no choice but to go under.
Who cares? Commodore might have vanished from the earth over a year ago
for all they've done for us!
Oh never mind. I just noticed the signature....
> +++++++
> ++++ Marc Barrett -MB-
> ++ IRC nick: Cyclone | e-mail: bar...@iastate.edu
> +
Your reputation precedes you, Mr. Barrett.
Alexis David Dinno
Steve Bara <fr...@astro.ocis.temple.edu> wrote:
>In response to Marc Barrett's post:
>
>Yes, CBM is out of business, and his article is correct, but his conclusions
>are utter speculation. At this point several companies are in the process of
>bidding for the remains of CBM, and we should see a real resolution of this
CBM is NOT out of business, C= International is. The US, Canadian, UK, French
and German C= firms are all alive and kicking. This discussion belongs on
(and in fact is being carried on on) c.s.a.advocacy and hardware.
that is all
Gus Zader
: Commodore Folds 04-29 0340
: Commodore Scuttles Ship
This is not necessarily bad news. One of C='s major creditors is Hewlett
Packard. It is known that C= and HP were in agreement to use CD32 type
systems has HP's interactive tv set-top system.
It appears (from research I've been doing) that HP will take over much of
the AGA line and the technology currently in the pipeline.
NewTek may get rights to pre-aga technologies, providing a way for them
to keep production on the videotoaster, and give them a way of expanding
into other platforms.
What might happen? (this is all conjecture...)
HP MIGHT sell Amiga's as Multimedia platforms that are IBM compatible..
these compatibles would be advertised as PC-clones with multimedia
graphic and sound system (that being the amiga itself).
NewTek might take the A2000 motherboard design and strip it down to JUST
what is needed to run the video toaster itself, and use a Mac or IBM box
as the controller... this could even be brought down to the point of an
"amiga on a card" style system that would happen to have an expansion
slot (aka one zorro 2 slot) for the Video Flyer card.
It could happen..
further... this could in the end be a good thing..
(after all, at liquidation.. SOMEONE will buy these technologies... and
they will do SOMETHING with them... we'll see... at least good ol'
Irving Gould is getting what he deserves... a pink slip.)
gus (these are my opinion, but for the low low price $29.95, I'll lease
em to ya!) gza...@muselab.ac.runet.edu