Petro Tyschtschenko Speech, April 13 1996
![[GIF pic]](escom11.gif)
Ladies and Gentlemen,
First of all, I'd like to thank you for being here at this first World of Amiga show in the UK this year.
As you might most certainly have heard already, our company, Amiga Technologies GmbH is about to be sold by ESCOM to VIScorp. The process, engaged by the signature of a binding letter of understanding between ESCOM, VIScorp and Amiga has been announced on Thursday this week.
I will use this opportunity to introduce you Mr. William Buck, president and CEO of VIScorp. I'm quite sure that Bill will say a few words afterwards.
A lot of questions arise. Why is this happening ? Who is VIScorp ? What does this mean for Amiga ?
In 1995, when ESCOM took over the intellectual property of the former Commodore, ESCOM was in a financially good shape. The year 1994 had been excellent and the corporate policy was set to expansion. A multimedia company was formed. The decisions taken at this time were good and ESCOM saved the Amiga computer from its bad destiny.
Amiga Technologies was founded and Amiga computers were brought back to a demanding market. Strategic decisions were taken to ensure the venue of new technology based models as soon as possible. We have achieved all this and we are proud of that performance.
Of course, all these projects and plans are to be financed. it was clear from the beginning that it would take some time for a break-even point to be reached. The company created in may 1995 only could begin with sales in mid-September. We have then sold 40 thousand A1200 , 13 thousand monitors and 2000 A4000T machines worldwide until now, which is a satisfying result.
As you might be aware of, ESCOM is currently facing a quite difficult financial situation. A bad christmas season and inventory write offs were the main reasons for this. This situation of course is also directly affecting Amiga Technologies. The fact is that ESCOM currently does not have the financial resources needed to support the still ongoing costs of our operation, especially advertising and research & development.
To continue a successfull Amiga business, a solution to this situation has to be found. I checked a lot of possibilities, I looked into a lot of alternatives. Ladies and Gentlemen, I personnaly think that VIScorp is one of the best solutions. It is a very interesting opportunity for our future.
Last year, in december, a license agreement was signed between Amiga Technologies and VIScorp, for the making of the Amiga set-top box. This product is network oriented and needs a system like the Amiga with its video abilities and tight operating system. The relationship between Amiga Technologies and VIScorp built up from this time on became closer and closer.
VIScorp is a research & development oriented company. These research efforts are based on the Amiga technology for use in set top boxes. Former Commodore engineers work for VIScorp, which will of course be an appreciable synergy for the development of Amiga in general.
The set-top box market is huge and will be a fantastic engine for our activities.
As I told our staff yesterday, this procedure is not affecting our daily business and ongoing projects, as well as my position as the president of the company. We want the migration to be made as smooth and transparent as possible, for our company and also for our business partners and the Amiga community.
I am confident that this is a good chance for us to be successful in the future.
When this deal will be finalised, the Amiga technology will return to an american company, which understands our technology and its manufacturing.
Thank you very much.
Info: Gilles Bourdin - AMIGA Technologies GmbH - Berliner Ring 89 - D-64625 BENSHEIM Tel +49 6252 709 195 - Fax +49 6252 709 520 email gbo@amiga.de - HTTP://www.amiga.de
Regards,
Gilles Bourdin
--
Gilles Bourdin / Amiga Technologies GmbH
Public Relations
Email to: gbo@amiga.de URL: http://www.amiga.de/
Amiga Web Directory