Hans:
I did some investigation of this several years ago on this topic exactly. I
was able to put my hands on the motion to approve the sale of the assets of
CEL and CBM.
Excerpting from the court filing, as follows:
----------------------
UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK
Notice of hearing to appeove sale of assets and solicitation of higher or
better offers.
...
PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE THAT the sale to Escom is pursuant to a contract
(the "Contract") dated March 13, 1995 providing for the conveyance of
specified assets (collectively referred to here in as the "assets"),
including the right, title and interest of the Commodore Entities to
substantially all of their intellectual property, including technology,
trademarks (including Commodore's logo and the names "Amiga" and
"Commodore"), patents, copyrights, and know-how, and tooling, inventory,
components, spare parts, microchips, and microchip test and design
equipment, for a gross price of approximately $5 million in cash. The
technology being offered for sale includes all technology and patents
developed in connection with Commodore's products, including the Amiga 1200,
the Amiga 4000, and the Amiga CD32.
{end quote}
--------------------
The auction was to take place on April 20, 1995.
As I recall, Escom did purchase all of the 8-bit technology, including all
of the Amiga stuff, and then promptly filed for insolvency on July 15, 1996.
Then, supposedly all of the same assets were sold to Gateway, which then
sold the Amiga goodies to Amiga, Inc. (Snoqualmie, WA). I would suspect that
the 8-bit technology went with it, although I can't confirm it. If someone
knows anyone in the know at Gateway or Amiga, that would be a good way to
find out.
However, when reading CBM's reorganization plan (which obviously was never
delcared effective; the company was ultimately liquidated), it specifically
mentions the desire of the liquidators of CIL and CEL to sell all of the
intellectual property, know-how, tooling, and inventory, including that of
the C64 and Amiga products.
The reorganization plan also indicated that CBM had $150 million of
unsecured trade claims, including $95 million to various other Commodore
entities.
More information. As of an early-1997 D&B report, the officers of GMT
Microelectronics (purchaser of the CSG real property and equipment in the
auction) included Dennis Peasenell (CHB), James Oerth (CTO), Anthonw Wilson
(VP of Facilities), George Giansanti (President), Thomas Aiken (CFO) and
Alan Sabanosh (VP of Manufacturing). GMT purchased the Norristown facility
on September 2, 1994 (closing on January 6, 1995) for $4.3 million in cash.
This acquisition was to include some personal property (equipment and raw
materials and finished goods on hand, I would suspect).
Rich
Pseudo-attorney
-----Original Message-----
From: Hans Franke [mailto:Hans.Franke_at_mch20.sbs.de]
Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2000 7:12 AM
To: Richard A. Cini, Jr.
Subject: Re: Brochure re: CSG liquidation
Hallo Rich,
> I don't know if anyone saw this on comp.sys.cbm, but it's an interesting
> brochure. It's the auction notice brochure from 1994 for the Commodore
> Semiconductor Group. I work for the asset-based financing division of the
> sixth-largest bank in the US, and we've used Ross-Dove for our auctions
and
> liquidations. It's a nice brochure with detailed pictures.
In fact, I'm still searching for some informations. for
example who owns the IP of CSG ? Like the 6510 or 6530
cips - also who owns the IP for Commodore programm code,
like the 6530 ROM content ? Maybe you got any idea ?
Back in the final Commodore auction in NYC, these
rights have not been mentioned. the only alike IP part
has been the Amiga lot. Seams as if the ownership
has been 'lost'.
> Sad, none the less, but a great brochure.
> http://archive.dovebid.com/company/archive/commodore.htm
Jep, great historic material. Thank you
Servus
Hans
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Received on Tue Aug 29 2000 - 21:09:36 BST