mjsagar@sandia.gov (9123 SAGARTZ, MATHIAS J.) (01/09/91)
The Jan. 8 Wall Street Journal reports that Commodore has announced the replacement of Harold Copperman as the president of the U.S. subsidiary by James Dionne, who had been the head of the company's Canadian Unit. Copperman will remain with Commodore as a vice president and will be responsible for formulating "multimedia strategies." Also announced was a 10% to 15% reduction in the West Chester 600 person work force. The company said that most of the layoffs were due to a decision to consolidate manufacturing in Hong Kong. Some cuts are also part of an attempt to mechanize "back-office functions." It looks as though Commodore is out to enhance it's carefully nurtured image of instability and lack of direction. Copperman's name is now added to the post Tramiel list of Smith, Rattigan and Toy. Once again there is fresh blood on the West Chester carpet. Can any developer contemplating entry into the Amiga market not be turned off by all this? A big question is what's going to happen now. Back to the "good old days" of zero customer support and service? The general feeling in Amigadom had been one of optimism and hope. Clearly things had been getting a lot better. Now it's back to wondering how CBM will, once again, make the least of a good thing. I would hope that sooner or later Commodore's board of directors will tell Irving that he's thrown his last tantrum and it's time he retired. That may not be easy since he owns 20% of the company, but his abuse of this position is to a point where there's a good chance that the shareholders would support an ouster if someone would step foreward and lead the effort. The chances of that happening are pretty small, but we Amiga people have learned to live of hope and a blind faith that things just have to get better.
pab@po.CWRU.Edu (Pete Babic) (01/09/91)
In a previous article, mjsagar@sandia.gov (9123 SAGARTZ, MATHIAS J.) says: > > The Jan. 8 Wall Street Journal reports that Commodore has >announced the replacement of Harold Copperman as the president of >the U.S. subsidiary by James Dionne, who had been the head >of the company's Canadian Unit. Copperman will remain with Commodore >as a vice president and will be responsible for formulating >"multimedia strategies." Also announced was a 10% to 15% reduction in Is Copperman's switch a demotion or promotion? I was under the impression that Mr. Copperman took a position of Vice President for Commodore International which would give him more influence over the entire Commodore operation wouldn't it? It would seem to me that its a nice promotion for Mr. Copperman and shouldn't cause the return of gloom and doom some people have been saying. -- /// Pete Babic - pab@po.cwru.edu | /// /\ Integrated Library Systems | \\\ /// /--\MIGA Case Western Reserve University | \\\/// The future is here now!