Tulip tries to buy back Commodore brand
Wants to get back into 'entertainment' products
Dutch manufacturer Tulip Computers has announced it wants to buy back the Commodore brand it sold to Yeahronimo Media Ventures in 2004 for €22m. The computer maker is planning to bid $1 a share for the US computer firm Commodore, valuing the company at $81m.
Commodore, best known for its legendary Commodore 64 computer in the 1980s, declared bankruptcy in 1994. However, the brand simply refused to die.
German retailer then Escom paid $14m for Commodore International, primarily for the Commodore brand name. It separated the Commodore and Amiga operations into separate divisions, and quickly started using the brand name on a line of PCs sold in Europe.
In 1997, Tulip took over Escom and announced it would re-launch the Commodore name. It even threatened legal action against commercial sites that used the name without a licence. However, for many years very little happened, and late 2004 Tulip sold the Commodore name to Yeahronimo.
On its own, Commodore tried to create a niche in the digital entertainment marketplace with its range of Gravel consumer electronics, including portable media players, and entry-level MP3 players.
Separately, a Commodore subsidiary, Commodore Gaming, this year revived the brand for a line of high-end gaming PCs. It's not clear whether Tulip is hoping to get its hands on these too.
Tulip said that the buy-back "fits in our strategy of increasing our sales base through takeovers". The former manufacturer of PC clones these days offer tailor-made corporate products, including PaceBlade Tablet PCs and Dynalink communications equipment.
"Entertainment products are getting more important," a spokesman told The Register. "This is certainly an area we want to invest in."
However, Commodore still wants to explore its own possibilities of expansion, but have agreed to a due dilligence.
COMMENTS
RE: Commodore, the turd that just won't flush...
I take it you were a speccy fan then.....
Commodore, the turd that just won't flush...
JUST FUCKING DIE YOU BROWN AND BEIGE BASTARD!
Absolute Tragedy
That the crap Apple survives and the amazing Amiga is no more <sob> Guess marketing is far more important than a quality product.
RE: Ah the old Days
John, you are right, The Name is now worth more than the product C=
It is a Logo that anyone who remembers it will always bring back memories of great computers, and a company who stood by there morals, and then died LOL
I actually still have my 4000 030 (running) and still boot it up every once in a while just to make sure it is still alive. I have drawers and drawers of Games and Demo Disks from Various Amiga Magazines, and look back at how much better things were back then.
I remember a few years ago my friends getting turned on to Worms for the PC. I just said "that's old news" I've been playing it on my Amiga for years, Same thing with Themepark and countless other games.
I am amazed at the number of old Amiga Games that have been ported to PC and 90% of the world would never realize that these games have been around for decades on the Amiga.
The Amiga was just another one of those things that was ahead of its time, and suffered because of it. If Commodore Ltd. kept its promises and delivered OS 4.1 back in the early 90's then who knows where the Amiga would be now, Especially now with the Intel Based PPC Chips. I could only imagine what an Amiga running at 3Ghz with 2Gb of Ram would be capable of if my old 4000 030 could outpreform most PC's of the day, and even some now.
Ah the old days
When men were men, and computers were 7 Mhz.
When computer games came on a proper media, and full price was £6.95.
When 'The Hobbit' took 15 minutes to load, and came with the book. Which you could read whilst it was loading.
The C-64 was great, and the Amiga was greater, in the latter case because of genuine pre-emptive multi-tasking which actually worked rather better than anything since. I still have both, in hardware in the garage, and in software on my pc. And it can still bring my pc to it's knees if it does something complex with custom chips and proper multi-tasking. On a dual core big memory machine. Not an entirely fair comparison, but you get the idea.
However time moves on, no-one is actually going to use the heritage to bring out a new decent OS - not least because I don't think the code comes with the name, and no-one cares any more - I cannot believe that the 'Commodore' name has much currency now, so why bother. And why this much money?
Oh, oh, I know, they are going to bring out some ships - where at least the name has relevance.
Now I'd buy a Commodore ship - that's better than a Captain.
Although the car insurance people will always have an advantage.
