Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!nrl-cmf!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!decwrl!sun!pitstop!sundc!seismo!uunet!portal!atari!good
From: good@atari.UUCP (Roy Good)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.m68k
Subject: Re: Obsolete Computers
Message-ID: <1147@atari.UUCP>
Date: 31 Aug 88 16:58:32 GMT
References: <4029@teemc.UUCP>
Organization: Atari Corp., Sunnyvale CA
Lines: 42

in article <4029@teemc.UUCP>, wayne@teemc.UUCP (//ichael R. //ayne) says:
> 
> 	There is a place that sells old Fortune equipment.  It is really
> a subsidiary of Fortune.  When I was in the market for an inexpensive
> system, I contacted them and decided that their prices were too high (still!).

This is also the Repair center I referred to in an earlier posting. Call
(415) 593 9000 and ask for PDC (Parts Distribution Center). This is still
a dedicated group, with John Stanfa managing it. They are doing a good
job despite everything which is going on around them.

> 	Fortune went bankrupt at one point.  

NO WAY!!! At the time "old" Fortune (now Tigera) sold off the computer 
business, they had over $20M cash and similar shareholders' equity. This was
all left over from their IPO which raised, I believe, >$100M in '83. Yes,
they lost money hand-over-fist (I could tell you many stories, but won't -
I was a corporate officer for quite some time), but were never anywhere
near bankruptcy. The board DID consider liquidation as one option, but
decided against it - this is not the same as bankruptcy, nowhere near.

I have some bitter memories, but cannot let the truth be perverted this
way. What really gets to me is that in the last full year of operation (1986)
as Fortune Systems, we "only" lost around $2M and started to roll out the
32-bit product line and even get System V ready. Then "they" decided to unload
the computer business and keep the OA software stuff. As a result, many good
people left, SCI bought the business and even more good people left. Tigera
posted MAJOR losses as a result of the sell-off, even though they promised 
all along that the sale would be a wash for Tigera (ie no P&L impact).
Essentially a business which was starting to turn around got strangled. I
firmly believe that if the decision had not been made to sell off the
business, AND if company unity had been maintained by not spinning off the
software OA subsidiary in a very secretive manner (even officers of the
company, with legal liabilities, were deliberately deprived of information
regarding the operation), then Fortune stood a good chance of making a
profit in 1987 with the Formula product line. 
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Roy J. Good
Product Development, Atari Corporation
Views expressed are my own. Atari may agree or disagree; they have the right.
In this case, they probably don't even care!
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