On Mon, 31 Aug 1998 19:23:11 +1, "Hans Franke" <franke_at_sbs.de> wrote:
>>does anybody know who has right now the rights for
>>the KIM-1 design and the respective ROM code?
>>Or more in general - is there any successor for
>>the Commodore Semiconductor divison ?
I did some research on this about 18 months ago in preparation for
contacting Commodore's bankruptcy counsel to see about purchasing the rights
to Commodore's 8-bit technology.
Even though I read the Chapter 11 reorganization plan and Chapter 7
liquidation motion, and my corporate counsel looked at the docs, it's really
hard to trace the chain of asset transfers, since I could not find a
specific list of those assets sold; only broad "all intellectual property"
language was used.
Collectively, Commodore's assets were sold to Escom (a German computer
manufacturer) for $14 million, $4 million of which realted to CBM and $10
million related to Commodore International Bahamas, Ltd. an affiliate of
CBM. The former CSG operation located at 950 Rittenhouse Road in Norristown
PA was purchased by GMT Microelectronics Corp., a company formed by former
CSG management in order to purchase the chip-making assets. The purchase
price was $4.3 million plus another $1 million to clear EPA liens. Assets
included the plant, equipment, other inventory items at that location. Last
year, I made a field trip to GMT and verified that they exist and are
operating out of the old CSG building.
The non-CSG assets stayed with Escom until they filed for receivership
(bankruptcy), in 1996. The assets were then sold to a Netherlands-based
company (Commodore NL??), who then sold the Amiga assets to Gateway (the
Holstein cow people). I don't think that anyone truly knows who owns the old
8-bit assets. Commodore NL sells PeeCee compatible machines under the
Commodore name, so I'd bank on Gateway owning them. If anyone on this list
knows anyone at Gateway, now may be the time to use the relationship.
Rich Cini/WUGNET <nospam_rcini_at_msn.com>
- ClubWin/CW7
- MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking
- Preserver of "classic" computers
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Received on Tue Sep 01 1998 - 21:53:32 BST
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