@T-J

Quote:

I thought I was tackling a difficult question by rooting around in Amiga related court settlements, but it seems that you've been dipping into far murkier waters. It looks to me as if CommodoreUSA have licensed the name from a possible subsidiary of a company with millions of dollars worth of liabilities that can't afford to pay for its recent purchase of several holdings companies that might own enough rights to operate in most of the world without getting sued. Am I getting this right? And by the way, you wouldn't happen to be some sort of detective, would you?

yup. that's a pretty good summary, actually.

if we take barry at his word -- and i should point out that there has been zero announcements on the part of ASIARIM as of this posting -- then he has licensed the name from the correct owner. at least assuming ASIARIM can complete its last buyout of one of the remnants of one of the european 'investment firms' that had partial ownership of the trademarks. to date they haven't been especially successful, mostly in maintaining cash flow. their most recent 10-Q filing included a standard warning about whether or not it could survive in the short term:

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The Company has not generated significant revenues since inception and has never paid any dividends and is unlikely to pay dividends or generate significant earnings in the immediate or foreseeable future. The continuation of the Company as a going concern is dependent upon the ability of the Company to obtain necessary equity or capital financing to continue operations and the attainment of profitable operations. The management will seek to raise funds from strategic investors and/or the shareholders.

they're in the hole to the tune of some $3 million USD at this point. it seems the business strategy was centered on acquiring the commodore marks and applying them to consumer electronics and licensing them to third-parties. hasn't really gotten off the ground floor just yet. the licensing to barry and the royalties associated with the C64 emulator for the iphone certainly appear to the biggest potential sales winners thus far.

and no, not a detective. just increasingly interested in the drama around here. nothing like shady characters threatening to sue good people to get my 'dander up' as it were.

i really don't know. every day i want to give barry and team the benefit of the doubt, and then something else happens that turns that emotion on its head. who knows? maybe this will all get straightened out and they'll produce something cool. stranger things have happened.

-- eliyahu

Last edited by eliyahu on 08-Sep-2010 at 12:43 AM.

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