Company type | Aktiengesellschaft |
---|---|
Industry | Computers |
Founded | 1986 |
Defunct | 15 July 1996 |
Fate | Bankruptcy and Liquidation |
Headquarters | |
Key people | Manfred Schmitt, Founder |
Products | Computers, ICT |
Brands | Commodore International |
Escom AG (stylized in uppercase; previously Schmitt Computer Systems) was a German computer company, best known in Germany, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and the United States as the successful purchaser of Commodore International and the Amiga trademarks in 1995.
Escom was founded by Manfred Schmitt of Darmstadt, West Germany as the computer division of his music company in 1986. It became a separate company in 1991. In 1993, it became a publicly traded company, and it grew rapidly, controlling 11.2% of the market of German PCs by 1994.
During 1992 and 1993, a British operation was set up with a distribution and assembly base in Irvine, North Ayrshire and a small number of retail stores. These followed the model established in Germany, with small town centre shops which would customise PCs to order, rather than the out of town superstores and mail order businesses which dominated the market in the United Kingdom.
In February 1995, Escom's retail presence on the high streets of the United Kingdom suddenly expanded massively, when it took over many branches of the Rumbelows electrical chain, which were being sold off by Rumbelows owner Thorn EMI. Also in April 1995, Escom bought Commodore International for US$14 million, primarily to get the Commodore and Amiga brand names.
Escom was one of two companies to bid for the Commodore and Amiga Brand names and assets. They won the bidding process against Dell and Creative Electronics International. Many other companies were involved in the buyout but did not bid such as Commodore UK and Samsung. [1] [2] It started using the Commodore name on computers sold in Europe, and established a separate division for Amiga related technologies. [3]
The company grew too quickly, however, and lost 185 million German Mark that year. With no bailout from its shareholders, the company declared bankruptcy on 15 July 1996, and was liquidated. [4] The Commodore trademarks were purchased the following year by Tulip Computers, while the remaining trademarks, together with the full set of patents, copyrights and other intellectual property, were acquired by Gateway 2000. [5]
Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 16/32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphics and audio compared to previous 8-bit systems. These systems include the Atari ST—released earlier the same year—as well as the Macintosh and Acorn Archimedes. Based on the Motorola 68000 microprocessor, the Amiga differs from its contemporaries through the inclusion of custom hardware to accelerate graphics and sound, including sprites and a blitter, and a pre-emptive multitasking operating system called AmigaOS.
Commodore International Corporation was a home computer and electronics manufacturer incorporated in The Bahamas with executive offices in the United States founded in 1976 by Jack Tramiel and Irving Gould. Commodore International (CI), along with its subsidiary Commodore Business Machines (CBM), was a significant participant in the development of the home computer industry, and at one point in the 1980s was the world's largest in the industry.
Packard Bell was a personal computer hardware brand active from the late 1980s to the 2010s. It originated as Packard Bell Electronics, Inc., an independent American computer company founded in Los Angeles in 1986 by Israeli-American investors who bought the trademark rights to the historic Packard Bell Corporation from Teledyne; in spite of similarities in their names, Packard Bell had no connection to either Hewlett Packard or Bell System.
Gateway, Inc., previously Gateway 2000, Inc., was an American computer company originally based in Iowa and South Dakota. Founded by Ted Waitt and Mike Hammond in 1985, the company developed, manufactured, supported, and marketed a wide range of personal computers, computer monitors, servers, and computer accessories. At its peak in the year 2000, the company employed nearly 25,000 worldwide. Following a seven-year-long slump, punctuated by the acquisition of rival computer manufacturer eMachines in 2004 and massive consolidation of the company's various divisions in an attempt to curb losses and regain market share, Gateway was acquired by Taiwanese hardware and electronics corporation Acer, in October 2007 for US$710 million.
Ocean Software Ltd was a British software development company that became one of the biggest European video game developers and publishers of the 1980s and 1990s.
Thorn EMI was a major British company involved in consumer electronics, music, defence and retail. Created in October 1979, when Thorn Electrical Industries merged with EMI, it was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It demerged back to separate companies in 1996.
Rumbelows was an electrical and electronics retailer in the United Kingdom that once rivalled Currys, Dixons and Comet.
Psygnosis Limited was a British video game developer and publisher headquartered at Wavertree Technology Park in Liverpool. Founded in 1984 by Ian Hetherington, Jonathan Ellis, and David Lawson, the company initially became known for well-received games on the Atari ST and Amiga. In 1993, it became a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) and began developing games for the original PlayStation. It later became a part of SCE Worldwide Studios. The company was the oldest and second largest development house within SCE's European stable of developers, and became best known for franchises such as Lemmings, Wipeout, Formula One, and Colony Wars.
Amiga, Inc. is a company run by Bill McEwen that used to hold some trademarks and other assets associated with the Amiga personal computer. The company has its origins in South Dakota–based Amiga, Inc., a subsidiary of Gateway 2000, of which McEwen was its marketing chief. Gateway 2000 sold the Amiga properties to McEwen's company Amino Development on December 31, 1999, which he later renamed to Amiga, Inc. The company sold the Amiga properties to Mike Battilana on February 1, 2019, under a new entity called Amiga Corporation.
Amiga is the name of a series of personal computers.
The Amiga is a family of home computers that were designed and sold by the Amiga Corporation from 1985 to 1994.
The Amiga 4000T, also known as A4000T, is a tower version of Commodore's A4000 personal computer. Using the AGA chipset, it was originally released in small quantities in 1994 with a 25 MHz Motorola 68040 CPU, and re-released in greater numbers by Escom in 1995, after Commodore's demise, along with a new variant which featured a 50 MHz Motorola 68060 CPU. Despite the subsequent demise of Escom, production was continued by QuikPak in North America into at least 1998.
Scala is a producer of multimedia software. It was founded in 1987 as a Norwegian company called Digital Visjon. It is headquartered near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, and has subsidiaries in Europe and Asia.
The history of the personal computer as a mass-market consumer electronic device began with the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s. A personal computer is one intended for interactive individual use, as opposed to a mainframe computer where the end user's requests are filtered through operating staff, or a time-sharing system in which one large processor is shared by many individuals. After the development of the microprocessor, individual personal computers were low enough in cost that they eventually became affordable consumer goods. Early personal computers – generally called microcomputers – were sold often in electronic kit form and in limited numbers, and were of interest mostly to hobbyists and technicians.
The Amiga video connector is a 23-pin male D-subminiature connector fitted to all personal computers in the Amiga range produced by Commodore International from 1985 to 1994, and by Escom from 1995 to 1996. The connector carries signals for analogue and digital RGB, RGB intensity, and genlocking as well as power.
The Amiga 1200, or A1200, is a personal computer in the Amiga computer family released by Commodore International, aimed at the home computer market. It was launched on October 21, 1992, at a base price of £399 in the United Kingdom and $599 in the United States.
Commodore USA, LLC was a computer company based in Pompano Beach, Florida, with additional facilities in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Commodore USA, LLC was founded in April 2010. The company's goal was to sell a new line of PCs using the classic Commodore and Amiga name brands of personal computers, having licensed the Commodore brand from Commodore Licensing BV on August 25, 2010 and the Amiga brand from Amiga, Inc. on August 31, 2010.
Petro Taras Ostap Tyschtschenko is a German businessman best known for his work in the European market for the American computer company Commodore International.
World of Commodore is an annual computer expo dedicated to Commodore computers.
3D Microcomputers Wholesale and Distribution, Inc., often referred to as 3D Microcomputers or 3D Micro, was a computer company based in Markham, Ontario. The company was among the top five personal computer vendors in Canada in the mid-1990s. The company was partially owned by Hong Kong–based computer manufacturer PC Chips for several years; many of the parts for 3D Micro's computers were of overseas origin.