==========================================================================
             GERMANS BID, AND LAND A BARGAIN: ARTICLE SUMMARY
==========================================================================

[Dan Stets, the Philadelphia Inquirer journalist on hand for the auction,
put out an article on the outcome this morning.  This is the
point-by-point summary by Bill Zimmer. -Jason]


"Germans bid, and land a bargain"

Escom AG submitted a winning bid of $6.6 million for Commodore's
assets.  A judge, however, still must approve it.

By Dan Stets
Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer

a.  Escom purchased Commodore's assets for $6.6 million yesterday
    during the auction.

b.  A half-dozen or so companies were at the auction but only Escom
    and Dell Computer Company submitted bids backed by the required
    $1 million security deposit.

c.  Dell attached some unspecified conditions to there bid and consequently
    it was disqualified.

d.  Escom will resume manufacturing the Amiga and other Commodore
    products and begin to make Apple-compatible and IBM-compatible
    clones with the Commodore name on them.  The manufacturing will
    be in a plant near Beijing, China.

e.  Escom will attempt to produce a Commodore PowerPC.  This will be
    manufactured in Europe.

f.  Escom has no plans to resume any of Commodore's American manufacturing
    operations.

g.  Both the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York City and the Supreme
    Court of the Bahamas must still approve the sale.

h.  Both IBM and the trustee for Commodore's assets in the Netherlands,
    UK, and the Philippines are objecting to the sale.

i.  A hearing will be held today, Friday, April 21, in U.S. Bankruptcy
    Court to consider the proposed sale to Escom and the objections of
    the above (h) creditors.

j.  Since Commodore's creditors are owed more than $100 million and
    previous estimates of Commodore's auction value were put as high
    as $20 million, the creditors may have reservations about the
    low sale price generated by the auction.

k.  A standing-room-only crowd of 65 attended the auction.  Two creditors,
    Prudential Insurance and Microsoft were in attendance.  Representatives
    from two Chinese electronics companies, New Star and Tietsin Trust &
    Investment Company also were in attendance.

l.  Escom plans a joint venture with Tietsin to manufacture Commodore's
    products.

m.  Also at the auction were representatives of Computer Connection of
    Stockton, California.  They submitted a bid but did not include the
    required $1 million deposit.  There bid was, therefore, disqualified.

n.  CEI apparently teamed up with Dell in its unsuccessful bid.

o.  The Commodore UK management buyout team withdrew before the bidding
    began.

p.  Dell's representative at the auction, Mr. Dalton Kaye, stated that
    his company had not yet given up its attempt to purchase Commodore.
    He further stated that he was not aware until two (2) weeks ago
    about the auction and had insufficient time to evaluate either the
    bid documents or Commodore's assets.
    
    In its latest fiscal year (which ended in January), Dell's sales
    rose 21 percent to $3.5 billion and profits rose to $149 million.

q.  The amount of Dell's bid and the amount of the bid made by Computer
    connection were not made public.  The conditions which Dell attached to
    their bid were also not made public.

-- 
Bill Zimmer - zim@ibx.com
Moderator, comp.binaries/sources.amiga