home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Newsbytes - Internationa…ews 1983 May to 1994 June
/
Newsbytes - International Computing Industry News 1994 Edition - May 1983 - June 1994 - Wayzata Technologies (5045) (1994).iso
/
mac
/
Text
/
Mac Text
/
1984
/
V53
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1991-10-04
|
8KB
|
167 lines
[***][6/5/84][***]
ATARI GETS TOUGH:
Within two weeks of introducing new video games and a new video game
console, Atari has laid off some 700 workers (May 30) at its Sunnyvale
headquarters. By July 1, Atari will have only 1,000 people left, compared
to 7,000 in January of 1983. In light of last year's loss of $539 million
by the Warner-owned company, Atari Chairman James Morgan, by July, will have
slashed the company's overhead by 75% compared to one year ago.
Atari will also pull out of a joint deal with Wong Electronics of Hong Kong
where the Atari 800XL home computer was manufactured. All production
will move to Taiwan. Among those laid off is Gary Summers, chief designer
for Atari's Semiconductor Group; he was responsible for designing ICs
for Atari's future products. Speculation has it this latest wave of cuts
is to satisfy N.V. Philips, a Dutch company seeking to buy up to 50 percent
of Atari.
----
CONTACT: BRUCE ENTIN
ATARI
SUNNYVALE, CA.
408-745-4142
----
[***][6/5/84][***]
ADAMS WITH SOFTWARE:
In a move to boost sales of the Adam home computer, Coleco is packaging
32 software programs with the $700 machine. The company would not say
what programs will be bundled with the Adam, only that the special offer
will continue through September and will be the subject of a major advertising
campaign this summer. Meanwhile dealers report Coleco is offering to
allow them to sell Adam computers on consignment; the money won't be due
to Coleco until the Adam computers are sold. It's too late for this
strategy to work with Sears, Roebuck & Company. Sears announced it stopped
selling Adam computers in May. A Sears spokeswoman reportedly said, "We
are trying to tell consumers that we prefer that they wait." The "wait"
apparently refers to an improved Adam computer which is undergoing testing,
but in the meantime, America's largest retail department store chain is out
of reach to Coleco.
----
CONTACT: COLECO INDUSTRIES
WEST HARTFORD, CONN.
203-278-0280
----
[***][6/5/84][***]
WEDNESDAY MORNING MASSACRE:
As Sorcim, maker of SuperCalc, was sold to Computer Associates International
during the last week of May, the axe fell on 30 employees, including top-
ranking company executives. The president, two vice presidents and several
department heads were among the casualties in the $17 million deal.
Nobody at Sorcim was available for comment (PR director Hal King was
nowhere to be found and is believed to be among the fired.) The new
Sorcim will be called Sorcim/IUS (after Computer Associates' division
called Information Unlimited Software) and be primarily involved in
research and development of new software products for Computer Associates.
Computer Associates made $84.5 million in sales last year.
----
CONTACT: SORCIM
SAN JOSE, CA.
408-942-1727
----
COMPUTER ASSOCIATES
JERICHO, NEW YORK
----
[***][6/5/84][***]
SOFTWARE FATES:
A couple items of note--the companies selling the most software in 1983 in
terms of dollars rank as follows, according to Dataquest: MicroPro
($60 million), Microsoft ($55 million), Lotus ($53 million), Digital
Research ($45 million), Visicorp ($43 million), Ashton-Tate ($35 million).
Despite last year's success, Visicorp is quickly becoming one of this
year's casualties. Last week it announced a major layoff and there was
talk of Chapter 11 proceedings. What's clear is that increasingly either
big marketing money or undeniably good, easy-to-use product are the
keys to success for software firms. -More disturbing, the limits
of easy-to-use products written for the IBM PC may have been achieved.
That's the comment from Jonathan Sachs, VP of R&D for Lotus. Given the
limits of microprocessors and memories, many software firms are floating
about looking for new hardware around which to design their products.
----
[***][6/5/84][***]
"KANGAROO COURT":
Apple has scored two more victories in its battle against counterfeit
computers. An Australian federal court reversed an earlier decision
in which a judge ruled Apple's chips, containing programs, were
not entitled to copyright protection. In this latest appeal by
Apple, the judge says the chips are protected by the company's
copyright. The decision comes from a suit brought by Apple
against a Taiwanese company, maker of the Wombat computer, which
was distributed in Australia. The ruling means the maker of the
Wombat must now come up with a different operating system. The suit is
among some 30 Apple has filed across the globe. Meanwhile in Philadelphia,
a man said to have been importing counterfeit Apples into the U.S.
from Taiwan plead guilty to charges on May 30. Two alledged accomplices,
who previously plead guilty were sentenced to 30 days in prison and fined
$15,000 each.
----
CONTACT: APPLE COMPUTER
CUPERTINO, CA.
408-973-2042
----
[***][6/5/84][***]
NATIONAL SEMI SCAM:
National Semiconductor's chips are in virtually every major weapons
system contracted by the Defense Department. In that light, the government's
move to ban National Semi from future contracts is serious indeed.
The Defense Logistics Agency told NSC on May 29 that it will be "debarred"
from selling chips to military contractors. The announcement follows a
three-year investigation into chip-testing fraud within National Semi. NSC
sells some $80 million worth of chips to the government each year.
----
CONTACT: PETER SPRAGUE, CHAIRMAN
NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR
SANTA CLARA, CA.
408-721-5000
----
[***][6/5/84][***]
IN BRIEF--
BERKELEY, CA.:
ADAM OSBORNE says his new book that details the rise and fall of
Osborne Computer (and points fingers at those responsible) will be
published August 1. Excerpts will appear in INFOWORLD during the
first week of July. Its controversial content has made the book a
hot potato for publishers; Osborne plans to publish it himself.
-DAYTON, OHIO:
NCR CORPORATION contends it will be "a major participant in the
personal-computer business." To facilitate that projection, NCR has
formed a dealer network and software development and publishing facility.
Its IBM-compatible computer was unveiled at Comdex.
-SANTA CLARA, CA:
PC-SIG of Silicon Valley is offering a $4.95 directory of public-domain
software for the IBM PC. Ten diskettes cost $59, the full set runs
$814. To get the directory write PC-SIG, Suite 130J, 1556 Halford Ave.,
Santa Clara, Ca. 95051
-MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA:
ACTIVISION is making inroads to the Japanese market with a recent long-
term licensing agreement with a Japanese video game distributor. Pony,
Inc. of Tokyo will distribute Activision's MSX-based video game software.
Analysts say the market for MSX-based game software will stand at one
million units sold within a year.
-TOKYO, JAPAN:
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone has come up with an encoding device for
computer data that's far less expensive than the American equivalents.
Designed to thwart high-tech data thieves, the device is priced at
$1,300.
-
[***][6/5/84][***]
PIZZA PALS:
A company that was once sued by Pizza Time Theaters for breach of contract
may be coming to its rescue. Brock Hotels Corp., which operates
a series of pizza-and-robot entertainment arcades called ShowBiz
Pizza Places, was sued in 1980 for alledgedly violating its franchise
contract with Pizza Time. Four years after Brock paid $750,000 to
Pizza Time to settle the spat, it's now offering to buy some of the
bankrupt Pizza Time's 243-store chain. Pizza Time, founded by Nolan
Bushnell, lost $81 million last year; Show Biz lost less than $10
million and its president Paul Pendergant contends, "there's only
room for one good chain, not two."
----
CONTACT: PIZZA TIME THEATER
SUNNYVALE, CA.
408-734-8731
----
BROCK HOTELS CORP.
DALLAS, TEXAS