#Atari strikes back
11 messages in this thread
-> When the Tramiel's bought Atari around 1984, they didn't buy the
coin-op division, i.e., the ARCADE games division. What they did buy was
doing game consoles (2600, 5200, 7800, etc.) and computers (400, 800, and
later ST, etc).
A very minor correction, if you don't mind. You imply that the "ST"
line was part of the deal Tramiel made in buying Atari Corp. from
Time-Warner but the ST/TT's were, supposedly, developed by Tramiel and his
team for their new Atari (Atari Inc.) I had heard that the ST was a
computer Commodore was developing and Jack wisked it and the engineers
away from Commodore when he left but I don't know how true that is.
BTW, do you know why Atari went from "Atari Corp" to "Atari Inc.?"
(BTW,do you know why Atari went from "Atari Corp" to "Atari Inc.?")
I think it is the other way around,Atari Inc. to Atari Corp.
-Rob
I guess what I want to know is what the difference is between Atari
being a Corp & Inc.
(I guess what I want to know is what the difference is between Atari being a
Corp & Inx.)
I have no idea.I guess the same.
-Rob
Leslie,
After Jack left CBM, he formed a company called TTL (Tramiel Technologies
Limited). It was under that banner than the ST was developed by one of
his people (I forget the gentleman's name right now — it is an Indian
name). There was about a 1 year period from the time Tramiel left CBM to
the time he purchased Atari (for $50M in IOUs).
-sja
Re: " it is an Indian name" – Shiraz Shivji. Not sure if I have the spelling
right. Very smart guy, as were the other engineers that went from C= to Atari
around that time.
Shiraz later left, and went on to become one of the founders of Momenta (which
used to be a company doing a pen-based computer)
andy
Hi Leslie, you'll note that I said "(400, 800, and later ST, etc)." That is,
I realized the ST came AFTER the acquisition. And no, Atari didn't steal the
ST away from Commodore, trust me. Some good C= engineers did go there though,
that is for sure.
Paul.
Paul,
I'm doing this from memory…but I seem to recall that Commodore sued
Tramiel for technology theft..and I *believe* they won. That way a long
time ago…and I could easily be wrong.
Don
Paul,
you're right, Atari didn't steal the ST from C=, the story was, the Amiga
people were facing financial ruin, so they looked for new money. Atari
(Tramiel) offered to buy the company (i.e. the Amiga) but then lowered
their offer (they probably thought Amiga had to go along because of their
financial situation) but then – enter Commodore who offered them (Amiga) a
reasonable price and so got the deal and our beloved machine which –
shiver me timbers! – would nearly have emerged as an Atari! ;v)
// Chris coming in from Germany
\X/ on AutoPilot 1.051……….
Christian,
That's not exactly the story…
Amiga Corp. had a cash problem. They'd negotiated a deal with (Warner
owned) Atari that would give them x amount of money (it's been too long
and I don't remember the actual figure) in return for Atari's use of the
Amiga chip set in a "non-computer" product (meaning a game machine).
There was an out in the contract … if Amiga Corp repaid the investment
in full within a certain period of time the contract was null and void.
When Tramiel purchased Atari from Warner he thought he had the rights to
the Amiga chip set. He did, but the but the time period for the
cancellation of the contract had not expired. With less than a week
remaining before the contract was to go into force, Commodore purchased
Amiga Corp outright and repaid Atari.
There were multiple lawsuits over this action and the accusation of former
Commodore employees taking proprietary info with them when they join
Tramiel at Atari. Eventually this was all worked out with the outcome
going against both companies. Part of the settlement called for the
nondisclosure of damages.
-sja