Microport Buyout ( was: Microport Status )

[Steve Rudek]

In article <191 at carpet.WLK.COM>, bill at carpet.WLK.COM (Bill Kennedy) writes:
> to the tree.  Intel and AT&T (perhaps not in that order) own this product,
> why not approach them?  Why not recruit John Plocher since he's one of the
...
> he was closer to it than any of us, what's wrong with funding him?  For
> some of us V/AT is the only game in town.  The '386 crowd has a number of
> alternatives, let's limit this to V/AT.

I feel much like you, I think.  There are lots of 386 vendors--and I
just read a posting from Interactive in which they hold out a 75% credit to
Microport 386 customers who wish to switch over; Microport 386 owners should
do that.  Period.

The 286 product is the one which I'd like to see saved.  Sure, that is the
one I own, but mainly I'm reasoning that there is no competitive source
of System V for the 286.

All this mumbling about "I'll chip in a couple thousand!" is almost
certainly nothing more than tire kicking.  Although I've no background in 
corporate buyouts I do have a lot of experience in real estate "distress
sales" and I expect there are a lot of parallels. 

I have been thinking that someone might be able to pick up Microport for a
song.  This talk about a million dollar price tag is probably nonsense.
The Microport creditors would likely be willing to settle for
10 cents on the dollar at this point--unless they actually have a secret
agenda of taking over the company themselves.  In these sorts of
circumstances you never know until you try.

Approaching AT&T or Intel to obtain a license for System V/AT might be
worthwhile.  I'm not so sure though; super large corporations such as these
two tend to regard $100,000-$200,000 deals which do not fit neatly into one
of their regular, recurring revenue categories as being more trouble than they
are worth.  This idea is certainly worth investigating if anyone can arrange
an "in" with anyone of sufficient authority at Intel or AT&T.  However, the
286 is rapidly declining in importance and I doubt whether it would make any
sense to redo Microport's work starting with older source from AT&T/Intel.

I still think there's a tantalizing possibility of saving Microport if
either the existing owners or an interested buyer would gamble on the
"silly idea" of releasing Microport owned source for the drivers, etc. UNDER
COPYRIGHT to the Microport community and sell the V/AT product "without
support."  Microport could act as a clearinghouse for driver fixes made by
the user community via a low cost bbs.

Whether that is, in fact, a worthwhile business opportunity depends on
answers to questions such as: (1) How many existent V/AT customers are
there? (2) Who are the Microport creditors and how much are they owed? (3)
What would be the breakeven cost for selling System V/AT (cost of AT&T fees
plus media distribution)?  I wrote John Plocher a letter asking his thoughts
on some of these questions but he either can't or doesn't want to respond. 

What do I think is going to happen?  I think System V/AT is going to die.  I
doubt that any company using traditional thinking about product support can
find a way to make a success of what remains of Microport.

If anyone out there has a couple hundred thousand dollars and a solid
knowledge of UNIX source and basic bookkeeping--or can pull together this
needed expertise with two or three partners this MIGHT be an opportunity to
make a lot of money by helping out an appreciative, existent customer base.
If I had sufficient C/UNIX technical skills for me to adequately access the
size of the challenge I'd likely be investigating the opportunity right now,
myself.  The suggestion of a "communal" buyout and management of Microport
makes me wince--anyone who'd make a statement like "I'd be willing to
contribute a couple thousand dollars" in my opinion has zero business sense and
would most likely be more of a detriment than an asset as a partner.

I really would like to see someone pull off a Microport buyout--they'd
deserve to make a ton of money for their effort and risk and I, for one,
wouldn't begrudge them their profits one bit.
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