Commodore brand to be revived
Toby Sterling in Amsterdam
December 31, 2004

A DUTCH company expects to sell the once-popular Commodore computer brand to 
US-based Yeahronimo Media Ventures for ?24 million ($42 million).

Tulip Computers International - which has held the rights to Commodore since 
1997 - said it has agreed to sell all remaining patents and the Commodore 
brand to Yeahronimo, best known in Europe for providing music and video 
downloads via the Internet.

Commodore became a household name on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1980s 
with its early personal computers, including the Vic-20 and Commodore 64. It 
went bankrupt in 1994 facing competition from clones of IBM computers using 
Microsoft operating systems.

But technology enthusiasts and devotees have kept knowledge about 
Commodore's machines alive on dozens of special interest websites.

Yeahronimo chief executive, Ben van Weijhe, said the company would use the 
Commodore brand to increase awareness of its services and hopes to cash in 
on a recent renaissance of interest in vintage games and computers.

"We have heard a lot from the existing community of Commodore users, asking 
'what's happening' with what they see as their brand," Mr Van Weijhe said.

"We plan to talk with them and listen to them" in deciding what
products and 
services Commodore will offer, he said.

He added that Yeahronimo was "starting to take actions" over possible 
copyright infringements of the Commodore name in the United States.

Yeahronimo also plans to sell its own Commodore-branded MP3 players and 
simple video game systems offering versions of the old Commodore games using 
a website called "Commodore World."

Mr Weijhe said these machines, which resemble others currently on the market 
rather than the old Commodore systems, were developed specifically for 
Commodore.

The deal is set to close within a few weeks. It specifies that Yeahronimo 
will pay annual installments of ?4 million ($7 million). Tulip retains the 
right to proceeds from lawsuits stemming from patent infringements that 
occurred before the deal is finalised.

Tulip, once a maker of IBM clones, survived its own financial crisis at the 
turn of the century. It said it would use proceeds from the sale to fund its 
current businesses selling PC-related equipment and handheld tablet PCs.

The Associated Press 


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