City of Kent Sells Naming Rights To Amiga

[humppa]

Amiga was at the forefront of the tech boom in America and today is the third most recognized brand in Europe.

 :roflmao:

If someone would make an independent survey on that, I am quiet sure they won't even be among the top 250.  :lol:

Amiga is a New York based company and its president, Bill McEwen is a local whose family has lived in Kent for more than 30 years.

So he must be good friends with the city major then to make such a deal without having any references or "technology" I suppose?

[humppa]

On the up side it does show they did have some money left.

I just don't want to know where that money comes from when OTOH they have been "unable" to pay there employees...
So I wonder what new investor is behind all this. Pentti Kouri? Who knows.

I am sure Kent's newspapers would be interested in some links and hints to know who the company with the naming rights to their new business center _really_ is. ;-)

[humppa]

c64_d0c wrote:
did anyone do a screen capture?...

LINK

And here (text).

[humppa]

So basically Amiga moved from Snoqalmi Falls to Kent? Amazing.

They gave up their office in Snoqualmie somehwere in 2004/2005.
I think it's only McEwen who resides there still.

When I went by the Snowqalmi offices they didn't even have a secretary and it was during regular business hours (that was a few years ago) and they were closed.

Their staff figures were always outright hilarious:

March 2000:
"The company and its 70 employees will occupy 10,100 square feet in a building owned by The Inception Group. The building is in the Snoqualmie Ridge Business Park, being developed by Quadrant."

Two years later...

April 2002:
"Employees: About 30."
"Goal for 2002? To deliver on our promise"  :lol:

[humppa]

weirdami wrote:
@TheMagicM

whats funny is that at one time Amiga fired Bill McEwen

Gateway did all that when they decided not to Amiga anymore. Everyone got fired. Then, Bill did the Amino thing. It's old news with no relevance.

True. The question why McEwen didn't already get fired during the last few years would be way more interesting to think about:

Amiga Inc does have investors. Investors (usually) invest for making profits. From the outside it appears that McEwen has done an incredibly bad job at that. None of the original goals were achieved and the few mobile games they are selling can hardly generate enough profits to run a business from, let alone make investors happy.

So why didn't they already fire either him or any other management staff?

Is the idea of Amiga Inc. functioning as a shell company for their investors really that abstruse?

edit: website finally got an overhaul

[humppa]

I just happen to agree with Tigger, this deal may have cost millions.

Not according to these news (Seattle Times, April 17, 2007):

"Kent city officials announced today that Amiga, a New York-based global technology company, would sponsor Kent's proposed $67 million events center, all but ensuring the project would move forward.

If the City Council approves it, the 6,025-seat Amiga Center at Kent would become the new home for the Seattle Thunderbirds junior hockey team and other "family friendly" entertainment, from holiday bazaars to monster truck shows.

City officials said Amiga would pay more than $300,000 a year for the naming rights, but the deal has not yet been finalized. Amiga said it would use the events center as a kind of testing ground for its technology, offering everything from cellphone-based orders of hot dogs to kiosks with its newest games.

In these last days of the legislative session, Kent is also hoping to get about $25 million in state funding for the project. The city would cover the rest of the cost.

The 150,000-square-foot events center would stand in the heart of downtown, within walking distance of Kent Station, one of the city's big attractions. A city-commissioned study said it would generate an estimated $50 million in state sales tax over the next 30 years.

The city has already spent about $3 million in exploratory studies and preliminary design for the events center, which could open as early as fall 2008. If the state funding comes through, council members are expected to approve the project in a May vote."

So it seems the deal hasn't even been finalized yet. The whole project still needs approval. But "more than $300,000 a year" isn't peanuts either. Especially for a company that doesn't seems to have any money for paying their employees.

[humppa]

hooligan wrote:

humppa wrote:
But "more than $300,000 a year" isn't peanuts either.

Actually it is.

For the "world’s premier provider of multi-media enabling technologies" and the "third most recognized brand in Europe" it _IS_ peanuts indeed.  :-P

[humppa]

The plan is awaiting final approval before the session ends this weekend.

LINK

I hope that the city council, or at least the local newspapers will have a clearer picture about Amiga Inc. by then.

[humppa]

As for McEwen, I don't know much about his activities while at Gateway - though he wasn't part of the decision making process there and they didn't exactly consider him vital to their operations - but his record since getting control of things Amiga via Amino (later Amiga Inc) is one of 100% utter failure.

The question is why didn't Amiga Inc's investors (Prokom, Pentti Kouri/Invisible Hand, etc.) already replace him with someone who might at least create a tiny chance of making profits? If the investors would really invest in Amiga Inc. for making profits, they would have already fired him a long time ago and installed somebody else. But they didn't.
There must be reasons why they still keep him as a marionette.

[humppa]

Perhaps it is even secretly used by Mafia-related individuals to launder money from illigal businesses - who knows...

Don't know, at least Pentti Kouri is chairman of the board which might explain some things...

Wikipedia Link

Today, he is remembered for his participation to controversial "Kouri-deals" in late 1980s. In "Kouri-deals", a group of investors including Dr. Kouri collaborated to buy a majority of two largest banks of Finland, mostly with borrowed money, causing a political outcry.

 :roll: