New subject: FWD: Free stuff in the UK

1 Sep 1998

...
  On Mon, 31 Aug 1998 19:23:11 +1, "Hans
Franke" &lt;franke(a)sbs.de&gt; 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. 
Did you talk to them ? Their website (http://www.gmtme.com/index.html)
presents only a few new products - noting of the old stuff.

...
      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. 
I think this is a formidable example for all our old (pre 1980)
toys - Almost all of the small (and even some of the big)
manufactiurers/designers have vanished. So who owns the design,
the ROM code, the spechial chip designs, the manuals and any
other soft ?

Gruss
H.

--
Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut
HRK

KIM/MOS-Tech