Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cwjcc!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!osu-cis!att!chinet!saj
From: saj@chinet.chi.il.us (Stephen Jacobs)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Federated:  Dumped by Atari!   Shame on you, Atari!
Summary: Triage
Message-ID: <7937@chinet.chi.il.us>
Date: 14 Mar 89 22:03:37 GMT
References: <1308@sdcc15.ucsd.edu>
Organization: Chinet - Chicago, Ill.
Lines: 15


This is in response to an article condemning Atari for dropping Federated.
Atari tried very hard to make Federated a winner, and lost an amount 
lately estimated as about $100 million in the process.  It seems (from what
I read in the Wall Street Journal) that 'everyone' in the retail business
(but few people in the computer business) knew that Federated was a basket
case before Atari bought it.  Atari simply doesn't have that much money to
lose, so they're getting out while there still is an Atari.  They don't 
exactly make money by doing that, but our enlightened (???) tax laws 
allow businesses which go from money-losing to money-making to write off
their earlier losses against their later profits.  At that, it is by no
means a certainty that Atari can survive as an independent company (in
other words, back to the beginning of the Tramiel era, financially).  I
have trouble blaming someone for doing everything possible to save the
family business.