Gateway 2000 Resurrects The Amiga
(03/28/97; 11:00 a.m. EST)
By Jeff Sweat,
InformationWeek
NORTH SIOUX CITY, S.D. -- Amiga Technologies may have died years ago, but giant PC manufacturer Gateway 2000 is
attempting to resurrect the once-popular Amiga multimedia platform by acquiring what's left of
the company.
Gateway announced yesterday that it has made an offer to buy
Amiga's assets, including patents, intellectual property, trademarks and trade names. Amiga is
now a subsidiary of German computer company Escom AG. The offer, of an undisclosed sum, was
accepted by a German court-appointed bankruptcy administrator acting in Amiga's name.
Subject to regulatory approval, Amiga will become a Gateway business unit, renamed Amiga
International, and will be headed by its president, Petro Tyschtschenko.
Until it went bankrupt, Amiga sold well-regarded machines and an operating system known for
advanced multimedia, film and graphics capabilities as well as pioneering features such as 32-bit
multitasking. Escom AG revived the Amiga briefly until it, too, ran aground in July 1996.
Gateway declined to comment on the acquisition until it is approved, but in an official statement
said the Amiga purchase will strengthen the company's intellectual property. Observers said
Gateway may have a tough time fitting Amiga into its business model, though. "Amiga has a
small market, and intense customer loyalty, and Gateway's about big, big volume stuff," said
Tom Rhinelander, an analyst with Forrester Research of Cambridge, Mass. "This is about as
opposite [to Gateway's business model] as you can possibly get."
Although Rhinelander said the Amiga acquisition is somewhat puzzling, he speculated that
Gateway may use Amiga technology for a multimedia-rich Internet "appliance" as the PC market
becomes saturated. "This could be a front-line PC manufacturer looking beyond PCs for
growth," he said.
Gateway 2000 CEO Ted Waitt discusses "Value Cycle" of IT/IS.
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Apr 02, 1997