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A year ago, amid the throbbing music and the glare of camera lights, Dennis Hayes revealed to the crowd gathering at Comdex/Fall that his company had just filed for bankruptcy protection.
It was a surreal spectacle. On one hand, the outsized booths of Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc. at the show were trumpeting 20 new products. On the other hand, some of its employees were scurrying off to meetings with recruiters from rival companies.
Over the past year, bids to buy one of the most ubiquitous names in the computer industry were piling up. At press time, it remains unclear who will be the owner of Hayes.
In any event, the coming year could provide an even more dramatic tale of how one man and his company are struggling to survive in a turbulent industry.
Over the past few months, Dennis Hayes has been busy putting together a competitive bid to help retain ownership and control of the company. As of mid-October, Diamond Multimedia Systems Inc. had filed its bid to acquire Hayes. Modem vendor and competitor U.S. Robotics Inc.-also a creditor in the bankruptcy through its ownership of Megahertz-also was mulling a bid for Hayes, according to U.S. Robotics.
Nothing learned in school or on the job could ever prepare Dennis Hayes to handle bankruptcy. "I had a science-based education," says Hayes, who did a five-year stretch at Georgia Tech as a physics major before leaving to work at National Data Corp. He founded DC Hayes & Associates Inc. in 1978 at age 28. Later, the company changed its name to Hayes Microcomputer Products.
"I certainly had 20 years' worth of business training," Hayes says. "The lawyers tease...