Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!dptcdc!berner!lethe!geac!jtsv16!uunet!lll-winken!ames!rex!uflorida!novavax!twwells!bill
From: bill@twwells.uucp (T. William Wells)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.i386,comp.unix.microport
Subject: Re: Microport has filed for Chapter 11
Message-ID: <831@twwells.uucp>
Date: 19 Apr 89 18:41:13 GMT
References: <3904@ficc.uu.net>
Reply-To: bill@twwells.UUCP (T. William Wells)
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In article <3904@ficc.uu.net> karl@ficc.uu.net (karl lehenbauer) writes:
: According to the April 17th issue of InfoWorld, Microport has filed
: Chapter 11.
:
: (So, despite their recent net protestations aside, the report of their death
: was not greatly exaggerated.)

I believe that you might be laboring under a misconception. Chapter 11
is filing for protection from creditors. It means that a company
doesn't have the money to pay its debts. It does not mean that they
are going out of business. Quite the contrary, it means that they want
to stay in business but can't make ends meet. (Otherwise they'd be
Chapter 7.)

In Chapter 11, you get a moratorium on paying your debts (and maybe
release from some of them) at the cost of losing your autonomy and
your ASSets. :-) After everyone has got their piece, you get to
continue with business.

According to what they told me at Microport two weeks ago, they
actually went Chapter 11 in the middle of March; but, surprise!, when
in late March I had a problem, I got customer support.  (Though last
week, they did *not* call me back as promised. Grrrr.) So they are
still there, sort of.

With any luck, what will happen is that Microport will be bought by
some responsible people who will pay their debts and then put them
back in business, with their problems fixed.

We can hope.

---
Bill                            { uunet | novavax } !twwells!bill
(BTW, I'm may be looking for a new job sometime in the next few
months.  If you know of a good one where I can be based in South
Florida do send me e-mail.)