PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DECEMBER 2, 1996
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Hugh Jencks
(312) 655-0903
VIScorp announced today that while
conducting its due diligence for the planned acquisition of the
assets of the former Amiga Technologies AG, its financial
institutions and the management of Amiga agreed that the assets to
be acquired were of significantly less value than the US$20 million
which had been proposed. The original US$40 million offer included
the guarantee of ESCOM distribution in Europe as well as several
other features which disappeared with the ESCOM
bankruptcy.
One of these items is the fact that one of
the most valuable pieces of the inventory is currently encumbered
in a complicated legal challenge to the ESCOM AG bankruptcy estate.
Without the assurance that this piece could be delivered as a part
of the package deal, VIScorp began to reconsider their
offer.
Further, it has been discovered that the
intellectual property is being pirated daily by small and large
companies alike. To combat this problem, VIScorp intends to partner
with Mahr Leonard Management Company, a Dallas, Texas company
specializing in patent infringement.
Due to the above, VIScorp allowed its
offer to expire on October 2, 1996, and lowered its bid shortly
thereafter. Throughout all of this time a wholly-owned VIScorp
German subsidiary continued to operate Amiga through Oct. 31, at
its own expense and with the concurrence of the Trustee. This was
done because VIScorp believed that Amiga was more valuable as an
operating company and wanted it to retain this value. During this
period VIScorp paid Amiga expenses, including salaries, and
generated over $2 million in sales which were to be credited
against the final sale price at a later date.
VIScorp continues to be interested in
completing the acquisition of Amiga. It believes that the future of
two-way, interactive television depends in large part on the
installed base of Amiga users who currently access the Internet
through their televisions and Amiga A1200 computers to reach
thousands of available Amiga titles. It also believes the next step
is to modify the operating system to further adapt the television
market to the vast and developing resources being created by the
Amiga world-wide development community - products which include
games, entertainment, and information.
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