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Tulip Computers International BV -- which has held the rights to Commodore since 1997 -- said it agreed to sell all remaining patents and the Commodore brand to Yeahronimo, best known in Europe for providing music and video downloads via the Internet.
AMSTERDAM. A Dutch company said Thursday it will sell the once- mighty Commodore computer brand to U.S.-based Yeahronimo Media Ventures Inc. for $33 million US.
Tulip Computers International BV -- which has held the rights to Commodore since 1997 -- said it agreed to sell all remaining patents and the Commodore brand to Yeahronimo, best known in Europe for providing music and video downloads via the Internet.
Commodore became a household name on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1980s with its early personal computers, including the Vic- 20 and C64 machines, before going bankrupt in 1994 under competition from IBM's PC clones using the Microsoft operating system.
But technology enthusiasts and devotees have kept knowledge about Commodore's machines alive on dozens of special-interest Web sites.
Yeahronimo will use the Commodore name to increase awareness of its services and hopes to cash in on a recent renaissance of interest in vintage games and computers, chief executive Ben van Weijhe said in a phone interview. -- AP
(Copyright Times Colonist (Victoria) 2004)