Symbolics dead again?

[Chris Garrigues]

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> From:  kragen@pobox.com (Kragen)
> Date:  Fri, 6 Mar 1998 15:26:42 -0500 (EST)
>
> I heard a rumor from someone at a company that uses a lot of Symbolics
> equipment that Symbolics is bankrupt again.  He says they bought a bit
> of equipment from them during their brief revival, but now they're not
> even answering their phones when called for support.
> 
> But the web site is still up.
> 
> What's going on?  I hope Symbolics is still alive.

Got this in the mail a few days ago:


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>From cstacy@life.ai.mit.edu Tue Mar 03 20:19:17 1998
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Date: Tue, 3 Mar 1998 15:09:43 -0500
From: "David K. Schmidt" <dkschmidt@compuserve.com>
Subject: Status of Symbolics
Sender: "David K. Schmidt" <dkschmidt@compuserve.com>
To: Lisp User Group <alu@ai.sri.com>, SLUG mail <SLUG@ai.sri.com>,
        The Usual Suspects <the-usual-suspects@ai.mit.edu>
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In January Symbolics laid off the last 3 employees.  After 10 years with
Symbolics and two unsuccessful attempts to buy the assets, I am off to
other, yet to be determined, endeavors.  My last year and a half as
President, CEO, CFO, Director of Sales and East Coast Customer Service
Engineer  was without a doubt the most interesting.  I want to thank all
those loyal Symbolics customers who helped keep the company going well pa=
st
its perdicted demise. =


In anticipation of a number of questions that people might have, I am
providing the following information.

The person or persons who made the successful offer to buy the Symbolics
assets are using a Boston law firm, Ropes and Gray (617-951-7000), to
handle the purchase.  I have heard rumors that  Andrew Topping is involve=
d
in the deal, but I have no information about him.  I do not know what the=
ir
plans are and do not know  whether they will offer hardware and/or softwa=
re
maintenance.  =


The Symbolics phone numbers in Chatsworth, CA are still in operation, but=

no one is answering the phone and I am not sure whether anyone is checkin=
g
the messages.

Princeton Capital Finance Co. (PrinCap), the current owner of the Symboli=
cs
assets, told me they were shutting down their operation on Friday, 2/27. =

Their phone number (609-275-7100) is supposed to remain in service as a
voice mail box.  I was told that Steve Gander had been tasked by ABN-AMRO=

Bank to hold Symbolics together until the purchase is closed.  His curren=
t
E-mail address is gander@dinar.princap.com, but that will change after th=
ey
turn off the PrinCap computers in a month or so.  The only mailing addres=
s
left for Symbolics is P.O. Box 389, Princeton Junction, NJ  80530

Ron Drake is the representative of ABN-AMRO Bank who is supervising the
shutdown of PrinCap.  He appears to have significant influence over what
happens to the Symbolics assets and is directing Steve Gander on what he =
is
allowed to do for Symbolics maintenance customers.  His number is
212-891-0621.  This is the only number for the current owners where you
will get a live person at the other end of the phone.

Before I left, the second release of Open Genera for DEC Alpha workstatio=
ns
was ready to go out for CD duplication.  Genera 8.5 for Ivory workstation=
s
was close to completion, but had a few bugs left to work out.  I do not
know what the future of these two products will be.

For those people with hardware problems while Symbolics is in a state of
limbo, I will be happy to try to assist you in any way I can. If you need=

help or have other questions, please feel free to contact me by E-mail at=

dkschmidt@compuserve.com or by phone at 703-455-0430.

DAVID K. SCHMIDT

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-- 
Chris Garrigues                 Deep Eddy Internet Consulting
+1 512 432 4046                 609 Deep Eddy Avenue                    O-
http://www.DeepEddy.Com/~cwg/   Austin, TX  78703-4513

My email address is an experiment in SPAM elimination:
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    intended for can reply to it.



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