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US Company Buys Commodore Brand For $33 Million
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Thu Dec 30, 2004 02:52 PM
from the for-the-old-foggeys dept.
from the for-the-old-foggeys dept.
inKubus writes "Tulip Computers International BV -- which has held the rights to Commodore since 1997 -- said Thursday it will sell the once-mighty Commodore computer brand to U.S.-based Yeahronimo Media Ventures Inc. for 24 million euros, or $33 million. A company spokesman said they would "take actions" against possible copyright infringements of the Commodore name in the United States as well as release a new MP3 player and rerelease classic games."
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After all... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:After all... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:After all... (Score:5, Insightful)
1>notice people making joysticks with built-in games that play commodore games
2>buy commodore name to sue those companies
3>...
4>profit!
Once that plan is complete maybe they will buy Amiga.
Parent
Re:After all... (Score:3, Informative)
Maybe It's for Cellphones (Score:4, Insightful)
Maybe they want to make a C64 emulator for cellphones and sell/rent old C64 games to cellphone customers.
Parent
Re:After all... (Score:3, Interesting)
It's more like
1>Notice a little too late in the game that the brand still has some tangible value.
2>buy commodore name and threaten to sue those companies so you get media coverage.
3>make games yourself, and use brand to market new hardware and devices of some sort. (still an iffy proposition, because the brand has no credibility other than nostalgia at this point).
4>profit... if you're smart and reaallly lucky.
Re:After all... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:After all... (Score:4, Informative)
The company making the new Amiga Operating System is Hyperion Entertainment [hyperion-e...inment.com]
And an example of one of the dozen or so online stores that currently sell the new Amiga Hardware coupled with the new Amiga operating system as well as Classic Amiga Hardware and Software is Vesalia Online [vesalia.de] --- Thats right! You can already buy it!!!!
Parent
Re:After all... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:After all... (Score:3, Informative)
Almost certainly, yes, but not necessarily. MIDI interfaces were available for the C64, and Commodore themselves even made a MIDI keyboard, the MK10. I still have one.
There goes (Score:4, Insightful)
Commodore's heritage (Score:4, Informative)
Commodore was founded by Jack Tramiel, who was a Polish-born American citizen, established Commodore in Canada to circumvent stricter import/export regulations in the US (some of Commodore's early office products and parts were imported from eastern Europe and relations between US and nations within the Soviet sphere of influence were obviously cooling). Co-founder CP Morgan might've been Canadian but I'm not sure. In any case, CP Morgan's company went bankrupt and the SEC thoroughly investigated Morgan for less-than-honest conduct. Later, Canadian Irving Gould invested in Commodore and kept it alive, but he was ultimately responsible for ousting Jack in the 80s. Gould was also noted for his not-quite-honest business practises. If I recall, Commodore International was incorporated offshore to avoid taxation, although the physical offices were in Canada.
So....the "Canadian Icon" Commodore was founded by an American Citizen (a remarkable one who survived Auchwitz and had quite an acumen for business, but not Canadian) and incorporated offshore. The early Canadian investor (Morgan) had a minority stake and went bankrupt and nearly pulled Tramiel into a legal quagmire with his corporate hanky-panky. The next Canadian that stepped into the picture (Gould) outed the founder and let Jack take some of Commodore's best people with him over to Atari, then subsequently squandered the prize they snatched from Jack at Atari (the Amiga--which was a fantastic machine that was mismanaged into the ground).
Since the Bankruptcy, what was left of Commodore never came back to Canada--it existed solely in Europe.
As a Canadian myself, I think I'd find another Icon to be proud of.
Parent
Let Me Get This Straight... (Score:5, Funny)
A group of investors actually wants the name associated with a company whose business strategy was best summed up as:
Ready
Fire!
Aim
Re:Let Me Get This Straight... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Let Me Get This Straight... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Let Me Get This Straight... (Score:3, Funny)
Not just a lack of marketing... (Score:3, Informative)
- It was a CEO making 10+ million a year when his company was going down the tube.
- It was paying $800,000 a month for a huge factory building in West Chester, PA when most of manufacturing had long ago moved overseas.
- It was C= snubbing of third parties like Newtek (Video Toaster guys), until it was WAY too late.
- It was C= thinking they could sell crappy PC's under their name better than their own original product. They lost MILLIONS on those.
The fact that they lost the MHz wa
Re:Let Me Get This Straight... (Score:4, Informative)
So I think, somewhere, that story is garbled. The reading I've always heard, including that article on IBM's site linked to from /. that was about important processors the other day, was that IBM had the right to produce 8088s.
I suspect though the fact that the 808x series was source code compatable with the 8080, the then market leader and the only platform CP/M was available for, also played a part. Ironic really, considering CP/M then was dropped in favour of at-that-time vapourware from Microsoft.
Parent
Re:Let Me Get This Straight... (Score:3, Informative)
This is one of the reasons... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:This is one of the reasons... (Score:3, Funny)
I doubt that they are going to get that much from college kids.
Re:This is one of the reasons... (Score:3, Interesting)
Hey! Don't knock it. I mean, look what's it's done for SCO, and they don't even have a case or own the copyrights in question. These guys will at least have the pretense of a broken leg to stand on.
Re:This is one of the reasons... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:This is one of the reasons... (Score:5, Interesting)
No one is still insisting that Paperclip was better than Microsoft Word or OpenOffice.org Write (though I'm sure a few will as soon as I hit "submit"), so apps are out.
As for games, people still love old C64 games. That Joystick on QVC with the games on it is selling enough to have its own hacking community and people are still psycho about games like M.U.L.E. (my Wife wants me to get one of those joysticks and hack Caveman Ughlympics on it - I'd prefer Fort Apocalypse myself).
Thing is, Commodore themselves didn't write many games. M.U.L.E. was Electronic Arts of all things, Fort Apocalypse was Synapse Software (long dead of course).
Just buying out the "Commodore" name won't allow them to sue abandonware sites. There *might* be something they can do to emulator authors, but that's doubtful.
They bought the "Commodore" name since it's still a powerful brand in people's minds. They'll see Commodore MP3 players and Commodore 64 joysticks in stores and think "wow, Commodore is still around..." Look at the sheer number of people who think Atari is the same company with the same people. Heck, when I was working at Babbage's in 1999 when Hasbro had the new games under the Atari name (Windows CD-ROM's) I had people come up to me and ask if they "needed their old Atari" to play these games.
Parent
Re:This is one of the reasons... (Score:3, Interesting)
I can quote QVC's corporate office address from memory -- 1200 Wilson Drive, West Chester, PA.
WHY would I know such a completely useless piece of trivia?
Grab a Phily-metro telephone book from the early 80's --
Commodore Business Machines Inc. -- 1200 Wilson Drive, West Chester, PA
Oh the irony....
Finally (Score:3, Funny)
Wow, (Score:5, Interesting)
Memory Banking (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
correction of correction (Score:3, Informative)
The main difference between the MOS 6510 and the original Rockwell 6502
MOS created the "original" 6502 design and licensed it to others--Rockwell probably being the biggest of those (I think they supplied Atari for a time? Cannot remember). The MOS6510 was harware enhanced, whereas the ROK6502 was software enhanced. The ROK6502 didn't have the I/O port, but Rockwell defined ALL the "undefined opcodes" in the base 6502 design.
The "undefined op
Oh cool. (Score:4, Insightful)
I wonder if this means we'll get C64 games on those little joystick-that-plugs-into-the-tv things that are so popular nowadays.
Re:Oh cool. (Score:4, Informative)
It was on slashdot a couple weeks ago.
More likely, this Yeahanomorinono Media Venture Concern (is that REALLY a US company?!) will sue her ass into a hole.
Anyone know whats up with her or Commodore One? Is she using the Commodore name legally?
Too bad this company has no vision. To hell with mp3 players and re-selling old games, I'd love to see them update the Amiga, a la the G4 Mac and OS/X.
That I'd pay for.
Parent
Re:Oh cool. (Score:3, Interesting)
So here's what they're going to do -- sue as many of those small-time chinese c64 joystick manufacturers and sellers, online emulators, rom sites, etc.. then make their own just in time for the fad to be well over (I predict next xmas).
So... (Score:5, Insightful)
I mean, really, it's pretty much been empty promises since about 1992 from the Commodore/Amiga crowd, and the Commodore kicked the bucket.
oh goody (Score:5, Insightful)
It should be interesting to see... (Score:3, Funny)
Commodore is dead (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Commodore is dead (Score:5, Insightful)
The people most likely to care are those who *know* the situation, your hypothetical 30-year old Joe Sixpack might get nostalgic about his old C64 or Amiga, but realistically, C= is a company from the past and doesn't have that much cachet nowadays.
I don't think Commodore t-shirts will ever be fashionable in the way that Atari t-shirts became a couple of years back.
Actually, the one thing that pisses me off about the Atari 'resurrection' is the gratuitous changing of the logo. The original was an absolute design classic; either the fuji on its own, or with the fuji and 'ATARI' name underneath.
Hasbro did their own stupid variant when they owned it, now Infogrames have decided to alter the fuji itself (UGLY!), then stick it in the middle of the 'ATARI' name (where it loses impact, IMHO).
The best reason I can think of for doing this is some tosser of a design consultant justifying his fee. Scum.
Parent
Is this a U.S. company (Score:3, Informative)
Sports & Events
E-mail: info@yeahronimo.com
Yeahronimo Media Ventures Inc.
Ms. Roxanne Pons
Public Relations
Tel: +31 35 543 05 07
E-mail: press@yeahronimo.com
Company Address Europe (Operational Offices)
Hermesweg 15
3741 GP BAARN
The Netherlands
Company Address USA
Yeahronimo Media Ventures Inc
433 N. Camden Dr., Suite 600
Beverly Hills, Ca. 90210 USA
Phone: +1 213 379 0540
Fax: +1 310 362 8608
True Value (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:True Value (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
TRADEMARK, not copyright (Score:5, Insightful)
There are a couple of issues they might run into:
1) continuous use -- has the trademark been in continuous use over the years? They can't just abandon it and pick it back up
2) passing off - if no one else is "passing themselves off" as the Commodore computer company, they probably don't have an action.
overall, if their investment plan is litigation, i think they are in a craptacular situation
Bring back the VIC-20! (Score:3, Funny)
I want my 1MHZ of screaming power, with 5K of RAM!
Re:Bring back the VIC-20! (Score:3, Funny)
Great strategy; alienate your clients right away. (Score:3, Interesting)
New strategy (Score:3, Funny)
Though I'd probably get some strange looks as I rock out to the "Commando" theme on the bus.
So what their profit making plans are: (Score:3, Informative)
2) Decry copyright infringements about defunct company (that nobody knew existed anymore)
3) Sue people
4) Make Profit!!!
Hey I was able to complete all the steps...sound's like a familiar tactic from our favorite companies.
We must protect Jeri! (Score:3, Funny)
Jeri! You read Slashdot, right? Send me a message. In the meantime, I'll go get our, uh.. I mean YOUR bed ready!
Re:Yeahronimo! (Score:5, Funny)
It was all they could get... names already taken were:
Geronimo
Jironimo
Ghironimo
Geeronimo
Goshronimo
and
Gollyronimo
Parent
Re:I just can't wait (Score:3, Funny)
How dare you.
I remember when a bunch of my friends had Vic 20s, and I wished I had one.
Then for christmas, lo and behold, there's what looks like a Vic 20! Hooray, I rushed over, red-cheeked with excitement. Commodore 64?! What the fuck is that! I had one from the very first shipment to Canada. There was nowhere to get software for it in my area.
I was bummed, and all my friends mocked my useless PC.. Until a few months later my old man took me to t
Re:uh? (Score:3, Insightful)