TITLE : SAMSUMG BOUGHT BY COMMODORE! TYPE : Technical News FROM : peltola@cc.Helsinki.FI (Vesa-Matti Peltola) (+Bill Mills) DATE : 29 May 1994 SAMSUNG BOUGHT BY COMMODORE INT. -- MAY 29, NASSAU, BAHAMAS. Negotiations about the troubled computer maker Commodore International have reached an surpricing end. In a speech held by the president of Commodore Int., Mr Mehdi Ali, it was officially announced that the company has bought 51% of the stock of Samsung Corp. Mr Ali said he was pleased to step in charge of the second largest electronics company of the world, and also one of the biggest shipmakers. The financial backing was provided by a personal friend of Mr Ali, Mr Pablo Escobar Jr from Columbia, who had lended the company $4 billion. Other announcements were that all Samsung products will be sold under the Commodore brand name and that it will allow the company to drop most of the unnessessary advertising because of their already good name regocnition. Several new products were also promised by Mr Ali: a new cost reduced microwave oven without a numberpad. A toaster, that will be aimed to compete against Newtek's similar products, priced under $30. Mr Ali assured that the development and production of their Amiga line will continue as earlier. UutisAnkka International News, Nassau, Bahamas ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hi all, There haven't been much news these last days and lots of rumours again. The status is still the same, Commodore and Samsung are now negociating bits and pieces. Commodore employees are not allowed to reveal the name of Samsung in public yet. Internal news are tending towards a finalization in the near future (Commodore could be Samsung on Monday, actually, it's quite imminent). Apparently, Commodore would like more money than Samsung is willing to pay, that's why it takes so long. There's been a rumour floating around on Usenet, saying that Samsung will get the Amiga line and leave the CD 32 to Phillips. This is not true. As told before, the main point in the negociations between the two firms is that The ENTIRE Amiga product line is to be maintained and in no way splitted around among several companies or taken apart for some part of its technology. No news wether or not the production has started again in the Philippines, there was also a rumour about this but no one at Commodore Germany could confirm or deny this. So it may be true... or not. Apparently, Commodore Germany is still delivering to distributors in Germany and now also to France. There has been a delivery of 70 A4000Ts in Braunschweig (subsidiary of Commodore Germany) a few weeks ago and all of them are sold out by now. The assets of Commodore France have been transferred to Braunschweig, where most of the computing stuff was sold at an auction. There are 3 or 4 other companies than Samsung on the line, which are seriously interested in Commodore and the Amiga. Samsung is the only company Commodore is negociating with though, for now. Commodore employees in Frankfurt were paid this month. Commodore Germany is running as usual. I know this is not extraordinary stuff, but there's no need at this point to make false scoops if there's nothing more to report. Stay tuned. Gilles Bourdin Paris FAX(331)46266261 gbo@ramses.fdn.org C'est apres la foire qu'on compte les bouses. Hi all, There haven't been much news these last days and lots of rumours again. The status is still the same, Commodore and Samsung are now negociating bits and pieces. Commodore employees are not allowed to reveal the name of Samsung in public yet. Internal news are tending towards a finalization in the near future (Commodore could be Samsung on Monday, actually, it's quite imminent). Well I hope this is true. At this point I want some real news...good or bad. Though I'd prefer good. Apparently, Commodore would like more money than Samsung is willing to pay, that's why it takes so long. Even to end C='s got balls. I don't see them in a position to ask for some large amout of money. If Samsung doesn't buy them...then they just die. (unless there are other interested partys) Hey C= take the money and consider youself lucky. Commodore isn't just trying to sell themselves. They are under liquidation because they can't pay their debts. This means that they must be sold, and the money goes to the creditors (who end up taking a loss on the money they lent C= - how big of a loss depends on how much money comes from the sale). If the liquidation court decides that not enough money was made in the sale arranged by Commodore, it will not allow the sale, and may take over and arrange the sale. The goal of the court has nothing to do with the future of the Amiga, it is to get the maximum amount of money for the creditors. The goal of Commodore (we hope) is to set up a deal that will continue the Amiga, and satisfy the court.