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intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Sat Jan 28, 2017 9:49 am

Excellent conclusion to Jeremy Reimer's 10-part, multi-year history of the Amiga on Ars concludes with "The downfall of Commodore":
In 1993, sales fell by 20 percent, and Commodore lost $366 million. In the first quarter of 1994, the company announced a loss of $8.2 million—much better than the previous four quarters, but still not enough to turn a profit. Commodore had run into financial difficulties before, particularly in the mid-'80s, but this time the wounds were too deep.
Reimer goes on to explain the various reasons for the decline and ultimate implosion of Commodore, which took the Amiga went it for all intents and purposes.

Reimer spends a good amount of time explaining the drama in the boardroom, spending most of his time laying the blame at the feet of Mehdi Ali.
Ali sat back and watched as new companies grew faster and faster by filling in the gaps in Amiga hardware that Commodore refused to provide, such as hard drives and CPU upgrades. The largest of these, GVP, ended up being worth over half the value of Commodore itself, which was unheard of for a peripheral company. Those were all dollars that could have gone directly into Commodore’s pocket.

Mehdi was also responsible for producing the worst Amiga ever created—the Amiga 600. Intended to be a cost-reduced 500, it was released with fewer features than its cousin for a higher price.
Recommended reading.
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Photo credit: Ars Technica


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Shot97
Detroit, MI, USA

Posted Sat Jan 28, 2017 1:51 pm

GVP being worth half of what Commodore was worth is yet another subtle (yet never mentioned) reason of just how utterly important the American market was for Commodore. Where do you think GVP was selling those add on's? Not Europe, where most games were still being made for 512k RAM, let alone having hard drive support. It's those little things that when combined create a great big "oh crap, everyone has it wrong" idea in the minds that dig deep. David Pleasance was not going to save Commodore...





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