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Amiga Update (1995-04-26)
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// Amiga Update - News and Rumors //
\X/ (A Very Occasional Newsletter) \X/
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950426
M O R E O N T H E A U C T I O N
Below are two interesting posts taken from the net shortly after the
Commodore auction ended. Though they are a few days old now, they contain
some additional information about what happened at the end of last week.
One was burried in the Games notices section on GEnie, hiding it effectively.
Note that there are some conflicts between them, even to the number of
bidders in the process. It just goes to show how difficult it can be to get
reliable information.
We've had a few thoughts ourselves. While ESCOM's purchase of Commodore may
be good news for Amigans everywhere, it's somewhat sad to see a non-US
company taking over. This is fine piece of innovative American technology
that's now left the country. There's nothing else quite like the custom chip
set, and presumably it's now a German property. Regardless, if they keep the
line alive, they'll have our support. It's certainly not ESCOM's fault that
the Amiga had to leave home.
We also wonder if the computer will continue to be called the Commodore Amiga?
That might happen, we suppose, since Escom previously bought the Commodore
logo and name from Commodore Germany in a separate deal.
Finally, we still don't know what ESCOM's real plans are. It's just too early
to tell. We'll have to keep our eyes and ears open. They have been quoted
as planning to have restarted production in as few as 60 days. That would be
terrific! As we obtain information - and fun rumors - we'll pass what we find
on to you.
Interesting times continue. The good news is the Amiga has a new owner who
at least has the potential to do things right and seems to be in one of the
best locations for Amiga support. After all, most of the really fine new Amiga
hardware add-ons have come from Germany lately. Keep in mind that much of the
development work for the A2000 series came from there as well.
Brad
Here are the two postings (from last week):
-------------------------------------------
I got a phone call after the CBM auction meeting on 4/20/95. The
meeting in New York adjorned at 2:45 PM New York time.
Here is a summary of the information I received about the meeting:
At the morning session the requirements for bidding were announced.
Of the seven entities who expressed interest in bidding, only
three submitted sealed bids. The others were either unable or unwilling
to conform to the terms announced in the morning. CBM-UK was not there
bidding for the remains of Commodore, they were soliciting offers for an
equity buyout touting their continued profitability as an on-going
company. CEI was there but did not submit a bid, possibly to try to
enter the process tomorrow.
At the afternoon session the sealed bids were announced. The three
bidders were:
1) ESCOM, the German PC company who purchased the trademark from CBM-Germany
2) Dell Computers, a large American PC clone maker
3) The Computer Connection, an Amiga dealer from Stockton, California
All three bids were financially viable, the challangers meeting the
minimum of $7.3 mil. that was announced in the morning.
All three bids were accompanied by the required $1 mil. deposit.
The Dell and Computer Connection bids were disqualified for containing
extra contitions that were not in compliance with the terms announced
in the morning session. The nature of the extra conditions, and reason
for the disqualifications, were not disclosed.
The sale was awarded to ESCOM for their $5 mil. bid. There will
be a hearing Friday 4/21 to approve the sale, at which time there are expected
to be at least 3 challenges to the award: one by an unnamed Dutch company,
one by IBM alleging some kind of cross-licensing agreement violation, and
one from the creditors committee. There may also be challenges from the
the liquidators or other interested parties.
A reporter from the Philidelphia Inquirer was there and there will be a
story in the Inquirer Friday, 4/21/95.
I got this information from Louie Dituri, the owner of The Computer
Connection, and Ray Zarling who was with him at the meeting. They asked
me to get this information out to the net so people would know what happened.
Louie also told me that "We wanted to bring the Amiga home to California",
I wish he had been able to pull it off.
----
David Coughran drc@koko.csustan.edu
--------------------------------------------------
Date: 24 Apr 1995 23:18:28 GMT
Today, after 12 long months, the C= bankruptcy FINALLY ended. And,
like the whole bankruptcy up to now, it was not without many problems.
In the auction on April 20, only two companies had bid, Escom and
Dell. Escom was the German computer retailer, and Dell is a big American
computer company. CEI, long thought to be a bidder, had thrown in their
hat with Dell, so that Dell would work with CEI on the Amiga, although CEI
would be the ones running the show in respects to the Amiga. Escom's bid
was the starting bid of approximately 5 million dollars, as well as the money
they spent on the C= trademark, approximately 1.3 million dollars. Dell
made a bid at 2 PM of an undiclosed amount. However, that bid was rejected
for Escom's bid, because it had conditions attached to it, whereas Escom's
bid was unconditional.
After the auction ended, and Escom's bid was accepted, Dell continued
to work on, trying to make a more suitable bid. Their second bid was a $15
million bid, with the condition that they be allowed a 30 day waiting
period to look at the Amiga and decide if they wanted to keep it. If they
decided not to keep it, they would forfeit their $1 million deposit, and
the whole process of getting another bidder would have to go on again.
In the hearing on Friday, April 21, the Creditor's Commitee wanted to
accept Dell/CEI's bid. However, Escom felt that was unfair, because Dell's
bid was placed after Escom's bid was accepted. There was much legal
wrangling, but finally, the judge asked that during the recess the parties
try to work out an agreement. After 3 hours, the court re-adjurned, and
Escom said that they would agree to raise their bid by $6.5 million, to 12
million dollars. Although that was less than Dell/CEI's bid of $15 million
dollars, the Creditor's agreed to drop the objection to stop Escom winning
the Amiga, because Dell could back out of the deal and then they'd have to
go through the process again.
Escom is working with a Chinese manufacturer to make Amigas, and they
said that they should have new Amigas on the market within 2 months. They
have said that they are interested in upgrading the Amiga to the Power PC
chip, although they have said that the future is wide open, and that no
technical decisions are set in stone. They have already hired many former
C= technicians and workers to work on the Amiga once again. Escom has said
that they will sell Amigas in all their stores, and that they may also use
the Amiga technology in other products, such as set-top boxes, as well as
possibly liscencing Amiga technology to other companies interested in
making Amiga clones.
Escom has sales of approximately 2 billion dollars last year.
Escom apparently wants to enter the American computer market, but felt
that entering with PCs alone would be very tough, as there are already many
PC retailers in America. As such, they wanted to have a new technology,
such as the Amiga, to bring to American markets. Escom has said that they
will be setting up an American operation very soon.
Commodore UK did not place a bid at the auction, apparently because
their backer dropped out. However, Colin Proudfoot of C= UK and Escom have
both stated that it 2 weeks they will be holding talks as to Escom either
liscencing Amiga technology to C= UK, or, more likely, buying C= UK.
Escom has said that they will work with Amiga developers, user groups,
and the Internet to support the Amiga.
The Phillipine plant and stock in it wasn't included in the auction,
but it will most likely be sold to Escom for $1 million soon, because it
may actually be illegal to sell it to anyone other than Escom.
All this information is true. I was at the hearing on April 21, all 8
hours of it. I would like to thank Jason Compton, for bringing so much
news to the Amiga community during the dark time of the buyout. I would
also like to thank Georgio Gomelsky, for bringing me into the Commdore
hearing and getting me interviews with Colin Proudfoot and the head of the
Amiga operations at Escom, and the great Amiga PD/Shareware developers, who
make some of the best products out there for little monetary compensation.
And finally, I'd like to thank the whole Amiga community. You guys
have given me some of the best times of my life, and for that I am
eternally grateful.
Joshua Galun
Editor-in-Chief of Amiga Link Magazine
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|| Brad Webb - available at:
// Commodore has fallen || webb@malamute.med.ge.com
\X/ and it can't get up || GEnie -- B.Webb
(but ESCOM can - ?) || Portal -- XJumpdisk
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