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Apr 02, 1997
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. end

Gateway 2000 CEO Ted Waitt discusses "Value Cycle" of IT/IS.

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