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[News] Phase5 files for bankruptcyANN.lu
Posted on 09-Feb-2000 14:46 GMT by Christian Kemp41 comments
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amiga-news.de reports [page in German language] that Phase5 filed for bankruptcy on 26-01-2000. They are talking with interested parties about the purchase and continued support of their amiga technology, trying to enable further development of their products, especially the new G4 cards. People who ordered products or prepaid for them will be contacted by them.
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 1 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Mark Olsen on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
Oh my....
This can't be true. I mean, the G4 cards ready, lotsa orders, but still they are going bankrupt ?
Damn...
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 2 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by MashMan (Matthew O'Neill) on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
S**t
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 3 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Mark Olsen on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
Just to continue my first comment:
This must be the saddest day in Amiga history.
Phase 5 was the ones bringing us trough the darkest day.
They made PPC available to Amiga ppl. If they didn't, who would ?
This is really sad. I might as well dig a hole and lay to rest.
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 4 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Marco Ridoni on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
The link to the last Executive Update on www.amiga.com is broken. Are they preparing something new? And does this relate to P5 story? Am I becoming a dangerouse paranoid?
Marco Ridoni
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 5 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Pål Nygård on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 3 (Mark Olsen):
I've already dug a hole, and I ain't coming up again before Met@box delivers their promised AmiJoe cards.
This is really sh**e indeed.
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 6 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by CCRider on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
Oh god... this is REALLY bad news. Holy Sh*t!! :/
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 7 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by cYB0rG on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
Really sad news ... ;(
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 8 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Ben Yoris on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
I hated Phase 5 for their customer and marketing support.
But they were very good for hardware and thanks to them we are going to be able to play Heretic II, Shogo, Sin etc...
They made the Amiga progress when it was nearly dead.
I really hope the technologies will be bought by someone (DCE ?) to deliver G4 boards and make a REAL customer support.
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 9 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by RaYzor on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
Finally, the Bastards at Phase 5 HAVE GOTTEN WHAT WAS COMING TO THEM for f'n YEARS!! Their customer support was always crap, and their products were EXTREMELY expensive ... I for one having purchased an 060 Cyberstorm Mark III from them know this to be true first hand. Its unfortunate that a good hardware developer had to die, but one with customer service this pathetic (and S L O W) deserved it.
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 10 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Joar Sivertsen on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
Oh, come on, were you people expecting anything else?
It's almost impossible to make money from such a tiny
userbase..
Face it, the Amiga is NOT going to make an amazing
comeback (or whatever).. It was fun while it lasted,
Get over it!
(Waits to be flamed.)
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 11 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
haha heheh hihih (crazy insane loony laughter)
SHIAAATT!
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 12 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
Well...My Bvision guarantee ended almost same day as Phase5... :P
Like many people said their support AND SERVICE was STINKING (Crap)!!!!
I had my PPC card several times for repair...
Well this is end of that flipping Kernel war!
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 13 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by szutoman on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
I really hope that everyone who has sent their cards to be repaired will get them back; moreover, I hope the owners and there families handle this ok and mantain thier spirits through this difficult time. Sure, I know that they have not been the greatest company to deal with at times, but I know they will be missed by many of us out there. I wish all of the Phase 5 Managers and workers the best of luck!(-:
My $00.02 worth.
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 14 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Paolo "Mod3m" D'Urso on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
Really a sad news. :( Phase 5 gave much to the Amy...
A big loss for the Amiga community.
Let's hope DCE will continue bringing us PPC cards (even 603e with 060 aren't that bad) :)
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 15 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by John Millington on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
If Motorola had been able to ship their parts on time and in sufficient
quantities, this might not have happened. Phase 5 would have been able
to manufacture and ship their G4 boards, bill the remaining balance on
the pre-order contracts, and have some REVENUE. Instead, they had to just
sit there, unable to make any money because they had no product to ship.
Expenses incur with time, and once their original deadline passed, the
pre-order contract expired and I'll bet quite a number of people decided
to request their pre-order deposit back. Not a good situation.
It's a shame. Phase 5 gambled on Motorola, and lost. I am very disappointed
by Motorola's incompetence over the last few years, and now it is starting to
have some very tangible consequences. I wonder if they have ex-Commodore
managers working there.
Motorola: Take a stand, dammit. Invest some money in more fabs or whatever
you need so that you can SHIP PRODUCTS. People want to buy G4s and the
associated support chips, and are being turned away! You still have a chance
to gain some marketshare, but as peoples' trust in you fades, so does the
opportunity.
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 16 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Calo on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
Shit ;-(, The "last thing to do" is, for all Amigafan, pre-ordre the
cart from MetaBox...
tanks AmigaJoe..., I hope only that's not another joke...:-(
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 17 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Mark Olsen on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 12 (Anonymous):
> Like many people said their support AND SERVICE was STINKING (Crap)!!!!
You don't need it if you treat your stuff well.
> I had my PPC card several times for repair...
Funny, i didn't mistreat mine, and i have only had trouble once: I broke the fan. I fixed it with 2 drops of oil.
And i have had my card since the start.
> Well this is end of that flipping Kernel war!
That happened a looooong time ago.
Or lets see it in an other way: If p5 have'nt been there at all, you wouldn't have you bppc or your bvision. Would you have liked that ? Now, if you don't like p5 support etc., there is an option called "NOT BUYING THEIR STUFF".
But yet you did. That means that there must be something good about p5.
Boing.
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 18 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Tony Gore on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
Just a though....aren't the PPC chips from IBM pin compatable with the ones from Motorola?? If so, why does it have to be a Motorola chip????
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 19 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Robert Simmonds on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
Another part of amiga died today. The end of an era.
This is indeed, terrible news. No matter what people say about their customer service, their products were always the best of their kind, well built and very innovative. A lot of people complain about the PPC cards and how they were under-powered etc, but hacking a processor that ISN'T code compatible into a computer that wasnt designed to be upgraded, with a 3D graphics card, and integrating it (if only as a co-processor) was no easy task. I wish all the employees of phase 5 the best of luck, and hope that all their hard work and effort has not gone to waste.
Robert Simmonds, Editor of AS http://www.amigashowcase.org.uk
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 20 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Robert Simmonds on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 18 (Tony Gore):
If I remember correctly, IBM dropped out of the G4 standing, due to a fallout between Motorola and IBM concerning the Altivec technology.
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 21 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
A shame to see Phase5 go. However, their bankruptcie in essence is not
not the fault of the Amiga or the community. They got a raw deal out
of some of their Mac dealings (and lost big big $$$).
Next, everyone who prepaid for the G4's had
their money placed into an account that Phase5 couldn't touch or use
until they delivered. Since they cannot deliver, those who prepaid
will get a refund.
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 22 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Mike Bouma on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
Phase5 was struggling for years, but they kept going in the hope to keep the Amiga up to date and built a new computer with a state of the art technology. I will remember them as a GREAT hardware manufacturer, as that is what phase5 was.
But all is not lost. In a future where the Amiga community will be hardware independent. These kind of things won`t hurt us. Think of it, even if IBM would have gone broke in the early nineties when Amiga was still far superior, IBM compatibles would have still been made. And IBM would only be remembered as an ancient pioneer. This is because everyone was allowed to built clones.
I hope this is a real eye-opener for the rest of the community that still believe that porting the OS to PPC would keep the Amiga alive. NO, we need to concentrate on being ahead of the competition and not trying to keep up. We NEED to attract NEW users, the remaining userbase is not enough to solely support a new computer platform. There still is a very high percentage of talent in the community left, but the ordinary non-expert people have all left.
We must work together with Amiga/Tao Group (and Phoenix/QNX) to make an attempt to bring clean and innovative computing back into the homes. And not having to settle for inferior but yet good supported technology monopolies.
Sincerely, Mike Bouma.
http://www.stormloader.com/amiga
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 23 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Remco Komduur on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
Well, it's sad that it happened, but look on the bright side!!!!!!!! Maybe now finaly the flash BIOS in the current PPC cards will be changed and optimised for WarpOS and the new G4 cards will get the 68k emulator from Haage & Partner.
That is, if the new owner wants this to happen, but if it's DCE I think they will.
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 24 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Ben Hermans/Hyperion on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
You're fooling yourself if you are thinking P5 went under because of G4 shortages or shortages of certain parts.
The truth is that P5 never did serious work on their G3/G4 cards. They always were much better at hyping their stuff than actually producing it (on time).
Some of the claims made in their manuals/on their site about memory performance or bandwith of their graphics boards was extremely misleading to the point that one could effectively sue them for misleading advertisements.
I put my hopes on Metabox and Escena now.
As I have for the last 5 months.
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 25 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Tw|sT on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 10 (Joar Sivertsen):
Just a little point Phase5 don't just make Amiga products they also produce stuff for the Mac (ppc accelerators for 68k macs and the like) so I find it difficult to belive that P5 have really had to do this
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 26 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Markus Bieler on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 18 (Tony Gore):
IBM has a contact with Apple, so their whole production goes directly to Apple.
(Taken from MacInTouch (Swiss Mac Magazine))
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 27 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Linus Gustafsson on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
Phase5 did the worst mistake a company can do!
They started developing new stuff without selling
the old stuff that there was still a market for.
Everybody know that a company can't survive without
an income.
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 28 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 24 (Ben Hermans/Hyperion):
Escena?!?!?!?! Wake up...
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 29 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Mario Saitti on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 15 (John Millington):
> If Motorola had been able to ship their parts on time and in sufficient
> quantities, this might not have happened. Phase 5 would have been able
> to manufacture and ship their G4 boards, bill the remaining balance on
> the pre-order contracts, and have some REVENUE. Instead, they had to just
> sit there, unable to make any money because they had no product to ship.
> Expenses incur with time, and once their original deadline passed, the
> pre-order contract expired and I'll bet quite a number of people decided
> to request their pre-order deposit back. Not a good situation.
Any company in such a position has a responsibility to cover its own back or look for an alternative. I haven't had the chance to check this but I suspect one could take out insurance for such a possibility. This may however be prohibitively expensive for a samll outfit like Phase 5.
There is also the option of securing a guarantee from Motorola for such an event. If Motorola were unwilling to make such a guarantee, then Phase 5 had a responsibility to cut their losses. That might well be what happened.
Seems the PPC is just too much trouble...
Mario.
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 30 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Ben Hermans/Hyperion on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 28 (Anonymous):
Wake up yourself.
Escena CAN deliver. I have talked to them.
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 31 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Ziggy on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
If it was a G4 shortage then they shouldve stuck with the G3 and got some product out there. Leave a socket for the G4 or whatever. Isn't that what Metabox have done?
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 32 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 31 (Ziggy):
It wasn't a PPC/G4 shortage, but some motorola controller chip shortage,
so they had to change the design (As stated on their website).
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 33 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Torsten on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 32 (Anonymous):
I did not believe this motorola-stuff for a second. As written above, Phase 5 had no chance to get the G4-processors. All they did in the last month was vaporware. Take a look on the development. Every few month P5 changed the plans, the G4-card did get better and cheaper. Even QNX noticed that and did their own thing.
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 34 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 17 (Mark Olsen):
Many of P5's products (Blizzard 603e+) worked OK!...But when added with BVision
...It was fatal! (Those serious overheating problems)
Gladly after months of waiting I got new board (Thanks to re-seller...Not P5)
I'm not saying that their products were totally rubbish...but after what I experienced
with services.
...It's better to change name at least :(
Their previous products were quite nice (for example Blizzard 1230IV...which is still working just fine:)
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 35 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Tony Gore on 08-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 26 (Markus Bieler):
Well, IBM's whole production can't go entirely to Apple as they use some of those in their PPC Server solutions. But I seem to recall that Apple was having trouble getting the new G4 Macs out on time because of a shortage of chips from _Motorola_, not IBM (don't know if it was controller chips or the actual G4's). I do know that there are IBM PPC's in some Mac's because I've taken the heat sink off and saw the IBM logo there.
It just seems that everyone thinks of Motorola as being the only one who can provide PPC chips; I wonder if anyone has even approached IBM??
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 36 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Eric on 09-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 17 (Mark Olsen):
> You don't need it if you treat your stuff well.
Excuse me, but that's just silly. Speaking for myself, I got a PPC
board that was *broken when it arrived*. Then a loooong and tortuous
process ensued, which ended up with me paying P5 extra money just so I
could get a working board they ought to have shipped in the first
place. It's worked fine since then, but really, that's just
unacceptable.
So yes, they made some cool products, but after that experience, I
swore never to buy anything Phase 5 again. Looks like I won't have
much trouble keeping that promise now.... I respect them for what
they did for the Amiga community, but since their support was so
awful, I'm not sad to see them go now.
--Eric
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 37 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Nian on 09-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
Ok so what do we A3000/4000 users do about getting PPC? the AmiJoe card
has only had news on the A1200 AmiJoe and nothing since the first announcement
has been said about their Big Box cards.
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 38 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Johan Rönnblom on 09-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 24 (Ben Hermans/Hyperion):
Oh I see, you wouldn't trust a company such as phase5 who never
delivered any Amiga product and always were late not doing it, but
instead you would prefer one such as Escena with a long track record
of released Amiga products, always on time. And like me you probably
talked to them on Computer'98 when they demoed their PPC board just
like they promised they would, since they of course started serious
development, unlike phase5 who never actually produced anything.
Or maybe not..
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 39 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Ben Yoris on 09-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 28 (Anonymous):
Escena is serious. I met one of them in Köln for an interview in Anews.
They are more serious than Phase 5 was...
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 40 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous Coward (Score 3: Insightful) on 09-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 15 (John Millington):
>Motorola: Take a stand, dammit. Invest some money in more fabs or whatever
>you need so that you can SHIP PRODUCTS. People want to buy G4s and the
>associated support chips, and are being turned away! You still have a chance
>to gain some marketshare, but as peoples' trust in you fades, so does the
>opportunity.
Are you really so blazingly stupid that you think anyone at Motorola is reading? Why don't you write an email to Motorola if you really care instead of all writing a useful self-important soap box speeches.
Phase5 files for bankruptcy : Comment 41 of 41ANN.lu
Posted by Mark Olsen on 09-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 40 (Anonymous Coward (Score 3: Insightful)):
That was in no way score 3 or insightful. Try -1, flame.
Anonymous, there are 41 items in your selection
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