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     //              Amiga Update - News and Rumors                //
   \X/               (A Very Occasional Newsletter)              \X/ 

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950626
 
        E S C O M   T O   R E S T A R T   U S   P R O D U C T I O N 

                           O F   A - 4 0 0 0 S

Here's a news clip that should be of real interest to US Amiga users. This
copy was found on line and is presumably freely redistributable at this
point.
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Mercury News Business Article

Amiga production to be resumed in U.S.
By Dan Stets<P>

Knight-Ridder News Service

PHILADELPHIA -- In a surprise move, Escom AG, the German computer company 
that bought the remains of Commodore International Ltd., plans to start 
manufacturing Amiga computers in the United States by August.

The Amiga, a sophisticated personal computer that had multimedia capability 
years before competitors, has been out of production for more than 18 months.

Edward Goff, who works for Escom as a consultant, said he hoped to have Amiga 
4000 model towers, which contain the main workings of the desktop computers, 
available for distribution by the end of August.

Escom had planned to restart making Amigas in China, or possibly Europe, but 
so far has been unable to work out a manufacturing agreement with a Chinese 
company. A European company has agreed to do some Amiga assembly.

The circuit boards for the computers will be produced by Zober Industries 
Inc., a contract manufacturer, in Croydon, Pa. The computers themselves will 
be assembled by Quikpak Corp. of Norristown, Pa.

Executives of the two firms said details of the manufacturing had not been 
finalized.

Goff was vice president and general counsel of Commodore. He and two former 
Commodore engineers now are working as consultants for Escom, with the 
assignment of starting production here.

Commodore, which had its North American headquarters in West Chester, Pa., 
went into liquidation in May 1994. Escom paid $10 million for the company's 
core assets and technology in April.

At that time, Escom President Manfred Schmitt said he wanted to resume 
production of all Commodore products in China if possible. Commodore had 
last done its manufacturing in the Philippines.

However, Petro Tyschtschenko, general manager of a newly formed Escom 
subsidiary, Amiga Technologies GmbH, said the Chinese would not be ready to 
begin manufacturing for at least a year.

Tyschtschenko said in a telephone interview last week that Escom wanted to 
produce 22,000 Amiga 4000s this year. The circuit boards for all the 
computers will be made in the Philadelphia area, and about 10,000 of the 
machines will be assembled near Philadelphia for the North American market, 
he said.

The remaining 12,000 circuit boards probably will be shipped to Scotland, 
where the computers themselves will be made by a contract manufacturer that 
used to assemble some machines for Commodore. These 12,000 machines will be 
sold in Europe, he said.

``I think we can start production in July or August,'' said Tyschtschenko.

The company also hopes to manufacture 100,000 to 120,000 of the smaller 
Amiga 1200s this year in Europe for the European market, he said.

Escom has formed a separate Commodore subsidiary that will begin making 
multimedia computers based on Intel's Pentium microprocessor this year, 
Tyschtschenko said. These machines will be sold in Europe under the 
Commodore label.

``It is completely separated from Amiga,'' he said.

Goff said Escom was looking for alliances with companies interested in 
licensing Amiga technology for other applications, such as set-top boxes 
for television.

Escom also will be seeking the best way to further develop Amiga technology,
Goff said. In the past, Amigas have appealed to the higher end of the 
computer market and have been used for video processing, especially in North 
America.

Published 6/22/95 in the San Jose Mercury News.
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                                   ||  Brad Webb - available at:
     //  Commodore has fallen      ||  webb@malamute.med.ge.com
   \X/   and it can't get up       ||  GEnie -- B.Webb
         (but ESCOM can - ?)       ||  Portal -- XJumpdisk
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