The day Commodore closed its doors

On Friday 29 April 1994, at the end of the day, Commodore International announced in West Chester, Pennsylvania, that it was closing down and transferring its assets to trustees for the benefit of its creditors. The shares stood at 87.5 cents on the New York Stock Exchange, having been around $3. The last quarter had brought a loss of $8.2 million, on sales of $70.1 million; in the same quarter a year earlier, the loss had been $77.2 million, on sales of $237.7 million ^[1].

The CD32, launched in September 1993, was described inside the company as the make-or-break machine ^[3]. About 100,000 were sold in Europe, 25,000 of them in Germany ^[2], and the Associated Press wrote at the time that it had sold poorly in the market where the company did most of its business ^[1]. In the United States it never even came out: Commodore owed $10 million in royalties to Cad Track for the patent on an XOR method, and a federal judge barred it from importing anything at all into the country. The consoles made for the American launch were held at the factory in the Philippines until the debts to the factory's owner were paid ^[2].

The consoles made for America were stuck in the Philippines: a judge had barred Commodore from importing anything at all.

The liquidation began in the Bahamas. In 1994 only the Canadian, German and British subsidiaries were still making a profit ^[3]. The assets were put up for auction and, in April 1995, the German firm Escom bought them for $14 million, mainly to get the Commodore and Amiga brands, beating bids from Dell and Creative Electronics International ^{[3] [4]}.

Escom started making the A1200 again in 1995, at £399, with two games, seven applications and AmigaOS 3.1 ^[5]. But Escom itself grew too fast: it lost 185 million marks and, without shareholder support, declared bankruptcy on 15 July 1996 and was liquidated ^[4]. The A1200 went out of production that year ^[5].

In March 1997, Gateway 2000, an American PC maker, bought the Amiga intellectual property and Commodore's patents; the Commodore brand ended up with the Dutch company Tulip ^{[3] [4]}. On 31 December 1999, Gateway sold the Amiga copyrights and trademarks to Amiga, Inc., but kept the patents, which Acer would go on to buy in 2007 ^[3].

It was the start of a long life after death. The brand changed hands again and again ^{[3] [4]}, but the Amiga never again had a company the size of Commodore behind it. What kept it alive was a community that still makes boards, accelerators and games today. It is on that stubbornness that workshops like ours live.