johne@rocksvax.UUCP (Dan Fleysher) (04/26/85)
The attached (long) message originated on ARPAnet's INFO-ATARI@Score. --------------------- Received: from Xerox.ARPA by SU-SCORE.ARPA with TCP; Wed 24 Apr 85 13:24:45-PST Received: from Flora.ms by ArpaGateway.ms ; 24 APR 85 12:56:55 PST Date: Wed, 24 Apr 85 12:56 PST From: bfisher.es Subject: New Atari Machines?????? To: info-atari@SU-SCORE.ARPA cc: In case you missed it -- here's some rain on the Atari parade from the Wall Street Journal of 18 April-- "Atari Pulls Put of June Trade Show, Casting Doubt on New Home Computers SUNNYVALE, Calif. - Atari Corp. pulled out of a big consumer electronics trade show, throwing into question its am- bitious plans to deliver two new home com- puters this year. At the same time Atari stepped up its legal battle against its chief rival, Commo- dore International Ltd., with new lawsuits aimed at blocking Commodore from bring- ing out a highly touted personal com- puter. Atari's actions come amid several other signs of trouble for Jack Tramiel in his struggle to turn around Atari, a former loss-ridden unit of Warner Communica- tions Inc. that he bought last summer. For example, early indications are that Atari is meeting some roadblocks in its critical ef- fort to convince software companies to write programs for its new product line. Though it is still a small, closely held company, Atari's fortunes are the subject of industrywide scrutiny, chiefly because of Mr. Tramiel's track record in building Commodore into a home computer giant. The plans of Mr. Tramiel and Commodore to breathe new life into the home-computer market by offering machines as powerful as Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh at low prices through mass-market retail chan- nels could have an improtant impact on the industry. Withdrawal from Show A spokesman for the Consumer Elec- tronics Show, the leading exposition for home computer and other electonic prod- ucts, said Atari won't have an exhibit at the Chicago show, June 2 through June 5. The spokesman said Atari canceled it plan to have a booth at the show last week. At the most recent Consumer Elec- tronics Show in January in Las Vegas, Atari unveiled the first of its proposed new machines, a machine similar to the Macin- tosh and promised at about half the $2,195 price for a full Macintosh system. Atari of- ficials have said the company would bring out another computer twice as powerful as the Macintosh at a West German trade fair this week and show it again at the Chicago show. But Leonard Schreiber, Atari's general counsel, said the company was exhibiting the same computer in Germany this week that it introduced in January-the Atari ST. Mr. Schreiber said he didn't know why Atari backed out of the June consumer electronics show. Other Atari officials, in- cluding Mr. Tramiel, chairman, and his son Sam, Atari's president, were at the German exposition yesterdaty, Mr. Schreiber said. Atari had promised to start selling the ST computer this month but it isn't avail- able in stores yet. Move Against Commodore Meanwhile, Atari took two steps in- tended to derail Commodore's plans to bring out the personal computer it ac- quired when it bought Amiga Corp. last summer. In a federal court suit in San Jose, Calif., Atari charged that the Amiga com- puter infringes on patents that belong to Atari, Mr. Schreiber said. The suit, which names both Amiga and Commodore as de- fendants, seeks unspecified injunctive re- lief and damages, Mr. Schreiber said. Mr. Schreiber said the suit concerns patents developed by a former Atari engineer who went on to become an Amiga Executive. The patents concern microchips that con- trol the Amiga Computer's graphics, he said. Last summer, before Amiga bcame a Commodore unit, Atari charged in a law- suit that Amiga had broken a contraact to supply Atari three microchips-apparently the same parts at issue in the new patent action. The Amiga, which is expected to be unveiled later this spring reportedly re- sembles the Atari ST in low price and graphics dazzle. Atari also last week petitioned the court to name Commodore as an additional de- fendant in its original breach-of-contract suit against Amiga, Mr Schreiber said. He said Commodore refused a previous re- quest to be named as a defendant. Joseph C. Benedetti, Commodore vice president and general counsel, said Atari''s legal moves were "purely for publicity purposes and harassment" and called them "an attempt to intimidate software developers involved with our Amiga proj- ect." He contended that Atari's Mr. Schreiber, Commodore's former general counsel, filed the new suit to persuade Commodore to drop its own previous law- suit against Atari. That suit, still pending, charges that four engineers stole Commo- dore secrets before taking new jobs at Atari. The latest moves mark an escalating feud between Mr. Tramiel's new company, Atari, and the company he founded 26 years ago. Last week, Commodore filed a lawsuit in Chicago against its ex-=vice pres- ident of sales, David Harris, who now is at Atari, charging he was "involved in sub- verting the room arrangements" of Com- modore during the January electronics show, when space was scarce. A more immediate problem for Atari is that software companies don't appear to be flocking to write programs for the ST. Some concerns report that Atari has been charging them four times the suggested re- tail price of a $1,000 ST system for proto- type models to use for designing new pro- grams. Computerf companies often bend over backwards to accommodate software developers, and many give them proto- types at a discount, if not for free. Atari officials haven't responded to re- peated requests to explain their unusual practice. Some software companies say they won't invest any time or money into devel- oping software for the ST until it's an es- tablished success. Ventures Fall Through Separately, reports were confirmed yes- terday of two recent planned Atari ven- tures falling through. A spokesman for Mindset Corp., a small Sunnyvale micro- computer maker, said Atari discussed the possibility of buying the concern last win- ter but broke off talks at the end of the year. Buying closely held Mindset would have been a transaction similar to Commodore's Amiga purchase, matching a newcomer's lively technology with a well-known com- pany's established marketing channels. Mr. Schreiber said he didn't know anything about talks with Mindset. In addition, Mr. Schreiber said Atari scrapped recent plants to occupy an Irish factory Warner had used to make Atari video-game machines. He said Atari's pur- chase accord with Warner gave Atari the option of using the factory, but the Irish government wasn't "sufficiently accommo- dating." But an Irish government official based in Silicon Valley, who conducted the gov- ernment's negotiations with Atari, said Ire- land gave Atari "an incredible package of incentives," including investing in the company and granting tax concessions. The official said the plant shut down in De- cember, idling about 400 workers."