By Michael Webb, Editor-in-Chief, MikeWebb@CompuServe.COM
Well, now it's official! Gateway 2000 is the new owner of the Amiga. Included here and intentionally left unedited is the press release concerning that event.
HAMMERSMITH, London, U.K., May 16, 1997 - AMIGA International, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gateway 2000, Inc. (Nasdaq: GATE), has finalized the acquisition of the assets of AMIGA Technologies from the German bankruptcy court. The announcement was made at a news conference prior to the opening of the World of Amiga conference in London.
"We have received many positive responses from the Amiga community regarding the acquisition", said Jim Taylor, Senior Vice President of Global Marketing of Gateway 2000. "There is still an extremely loyal following of AMIGA users and we look forward to supporting the needs of this group through licensing and support of new product development".
Taylor was joined at the news conference by Petro Tyschtschenko, Managing Director of AMIGA International.
"Our strategy is very clear and we will be focused on reviving the market for AMIGA", said Tyschtschenko. "We will support the community that has kept AMIGA alive through bankcruptcy".
Tyschtschenko outlined the following areas that AMIGA International is exploring to reinvigorate the AMIGA market:
AMIGA International, Inc. will operate as a separate business unit of Gateway 2000. AMIGA International currently has operations in Braunschweig, Germany and has opened new offices near the Frankfurt airport in Langen, Germany. AMIGA International can be reached on the World Wide Web at www.amiga.de.
About Gateway 2000
Gateway 2000, Inc., a Fortune 500 company founded in 1985, is a global leader in the direct marketing of PCs. The company, headquartered in North Sioux City, South Dakota, has manufacturing facilities in the United States, Ireland and Malaysia, and employs over 9,700 people worldwide. Gateway 2000 products and services consistently win top awards from leading industry publications. In 1996, the company shipped 1.9 million systems and reported revenues of $5 billion and net income of $250 million.
About AMIGA
Since the introduction of the AMIGA 1000 in 1985, AMIGA has represented the embodiment of the efficient use of memory and hard drive capacity, while pioneering industry developments in multimedia, 32-bit multitasking and autoconfiguration. AMIGA led the industry in combining computer graphics, animation, and film sequences with stereo sound known today as multimedia.
MEDIA CONTACT: Angela Peacock, Corporate Communications, (605) 232-1686.