joel@decwrl.UUCP (Joel McCormack) (02/01/85)
Disclaimer:
I did and do have close connections with Volition Systems, and have
opinions about what this bankruptcy stuff means, but my attorney says I
should stick to statements of fact.
The message Mark H. Nodine posted on fa.info-mac on 28 Jan 85
contains statements which are not necessarily factual. I personally would
not offer my opinions on the viability of a company about which I only had
hearsay from a friend who had called the office. I can understand his
friend being enthusiastic about the PRODUCT (especially on the Sage), and
this carrying over to Mark's message.
First, a little history fact for those who didn't know: Volition had 100%
employee turnover in August 1984. New management was installed, and all the
current employees left Volition. I do not know how closely the new
management will follow the policies of the old management (me), nor what support,
new product development, etc. plans are.
Second, I posted a message to net.lang.mod2 and net.micro.mac, but
did not post to fa.info-mac. Here is that message in case you missed it:
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Subject: Volition Systems bankruptcy
Newsgroups:net.lang.mod2,net.micro.mac
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On 7 January 1984, Volition Systems was declared bankrupt in a hearing on
a Petition for Involuntary Bankruptcy (Chapter 7). The current management of
Volition exercised their option to convert this to Chapter 11.
- Joel McCormack, ex-President of Volition Systems, now at DEC
{ihnp4!decvax!ucbvax}!decwrl!joel
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What this means is that:
1) Volition's debts exceeded its assets.
2) They were not keeping current with their trade bills.
3) 3 creditors whose debts exceeded $5,000 were willing to file a petition
declaring this to be the case. (Petitioners pay court cost if the
court rules against them, and risk damages if the court determines they
filed with malicious intent.)
Companies found bankrupt under Chapter 7 have one guaranteed chance to
convert Chapter 7 into 11. Volition Systems did this. What can Volition
do now?
They have 90 days from 7 January 1985 (I got the year wrong in the
original message) to file a plan of reorganization. This may be a plan for
continued operation, or may be a plan for liquidation. If the court approves
the plan, they may then execute it. If not, they may get an extension, or
the court may order a court-supervised liquidation (that is, return the company
to Chapter 7).
In the meantime, they may carry on business as usual, except no officers
or directors of the company may receive compensation. Two of the individuals
who are working for Volition fall into this catagory.
I am a party to the litigation mentioned, and won't say anything expect
that cross-complaints have been filed against several of the people who took
over in August. The litigation is not a one-way street.
Volition Modula-2 on a Sage IS a really nice, fast product. I do not
know anything about the speed, etc. of the Mac implementation.
The old management was not going to bother with p-code on the Mac, and
instead planned to bring up the native code compiler on the 512K Mac. The
compiler does not require 1 Meg to run, this was simply the development
environment we were working in.
Any conclusions you draw from this information are strictly your own! As
one of the petitioners, I'd like to see Volition make enough money to pay off
my back salary.
--
- Joel McCormack {ihnp4 decvax ucbvax allegra sequent utcsrgv}!decwrl!joel
joel@decwrl.arpa