Escom
More info
- Creator
- Manfred Schmitt
- Released
- 1983–1996
- Type
- PC maker and retail chain
The German PC chain that bought what was left of Commodore in 1995 and went bankrupt itself the following year.
Manfred Schmitt founded Escom in Heppenheim in 1983, and in the early 1990s it grew fast selling own-brand PCs through its own shops across Europe. After Commodore collapsed, Escom bought the brand and patents at auction in 1995 and set up a subsidiary, Amiga Technologies, to revive the Amiga.
At the same time Escom expanded aggressively, including taking over a large batch of retail sites in Britain. The expansion landed just as PC component prices fell and inventory lost value by the week. Escom filed for bankruptcy in July 1996 and the Amiga rights were sold on. A run of freshly built Amiga 1200s barely made it out of the factory.