menton@v5130b.DECnet ("V5130B::MENTON") (09/21/86)
Re my earlier posting, mentioning a "Computer Chronicles" cable TV show in which the financial health of Atari was seriously questioned: either they meant 'Commodore', as my friend John Sangster suggested, or as C-3PO would put it, "Old data" (I hope - I only caught the last few minutes of the show, and it may have been 1 1/2 years old! Bob Menton MENTON@NRL-ACOUSTICS ------
jhs@MITRE-BEDFORD.ARPA (09/22/86)
I have heard from a "usually reliable source" -- one with fairly good sources inside Atari -- that the information in that show is probably about 2 years out of date. Atari has for a couple of years had only around 1000 employees, and they have NOT recently laid off 6000 of that 1000. -John Sangster jhs@mitre-bedford.arpa
manis@ubc-cs.UUCP (09/22/86)
It's fairly hard to reconcile the rumours of Atari's financial problems with their announcement that they are going public. One goes public to attract capital, which might suggest that they're cash-short, but it's rather hard to find investors who would propose to sink money into a company on the verge of going down the drain. Since financial information on Atari is hard to obtain, it's hard to know what's going on without looking at the prospectus. However, I suspect that the accounts I've seen in places like INFOWORLD and BYTE are more likely than most: Atari has been selling all the ST's they can make, but they can't make enough. In that light, an IPO seems reasonable, in that it might help them to afford more production equipment, warehousing, and inventory.
lbl@druhi.UUCP (LocklearLB) (09/22/86)
In article <8609212031.AA20135@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>, menton@v5130b.DECnet.UUCP writes: > > Re my earlier posting, mentioning a "Computer Chronicles" cable TV > show in which the financial health of Atari was seriously questioned: > either they meant 'Commodore', as my friend John Sangster suggested, or > as C-3PO would put it, "Old data" (I hope - I only caught the last few > minutes of the show, and it may have been 1 1/2 years old! > Bob Menton > MENTON@NRL-ACOUSTICS > > ------ I am pretty sure that this was old data. Atari layed off many of their workers when they were owned by Warner. This was due to shifting much of the production of their video games to offshore facilities. I haven't heard of any layoffs since Jack has owned the company. Barry Locklear
menton@v5130b.DECnet ("V5130B::MENTON") (09/29/86)
I would hate to be accused of being the originator of rumors concerning the financial health (presumably, ill) of Atari. In retrospect, the question in my mind about Atari's finances, generated by a cable TV program that I now believe was over 2 years old, should have remained where it began: in my mind, and NOT on this net. I could, and should, have brought up this question via a medium that does not get such wide dissemination. I am now confident that the cable TV show was discussing the state of affairs of Atari in pre-Tramiel, pre-ST days when they were still owned by Warner Communications (and, AT THAT TIME, in BIG financial trouble). End of rumor. New rumor: who is porting NASTRAN to the ST? Bob Menton MENTON@NRL-ACOUSTICS ------ ------