The Commodore Brand was sold to a new owner who wants to revive it fully

[panzerkampfwagyu]

What was intended to be a new way of licensing commodore products, making it available easily turned into the owners of the brand actually agreeing to sell it.

 

[GipoScribantino]

That's good, but learning a number of these historic brands are left to rot because the owner can't be assed to do the bare minimum and is happy to give it away to literally anyone, makes me mad.

 

[Angry_Panda]

That's good, but learning a number of these historic brands are left to rot because the owner can't be assed to do the bare minimum and is happy to give it away to literally anyone, makes me mad.

Yeah, but realistically, what's the market for Commodore compatible anything these days? There's not a big enough pool of buyers there for anyone to make this a viable business. I didn't watch the video, but I'm guessing this is going to be some hobbyists working to support the platform as a labor of love rather than anything turning a meaningful profit (as would be measured by a sizeable company). This is true for a lot of legacy technologies - there's a small pool of dedicated users keeping the tech 'alive' in some form. It's really rare to see something like the record revival, where one of those dying techs comes back.

 

[manadrop]

Exciting news. Truly. Hope it all goes well.

 

[GipoScribantino]

There's not a big enough pool of buyers there for anyone to make this a viable business.

But nobody has to turn it into a viable business.
Even if you do a yearly event where you gather all hobbysts and let them roam free, maybe letting them host their own talks, it's still better than having a brand and using it for nothing.
I've been part of organizing small-scale events like this one, and if you put a modicum of interest into it you can actually get a margin of profit out of it. Not enough to make it a business, sure, but everyone can eat their cake anyway.

 

[Angry_Panda]

But nobody has to turn it into a viable business.
Even if you do a yearly event where you gather all hobbysts and let them roam free, maybe letting them host their own talks, it's still better than having a brand and using it for nothing.
I've been part of organizing small-scale events like this one, and if you put a modicum of interest into it you can actually get a margin of profit out of it. Not enough to make it a business, sure, but everyone can eat their cake anyway.

I agree with most of this - 'do the hobby for the love of the hobby' makes sense, and doesn't have to make money (though if you can break even, great!). The problem is once 'you' (pardon my using the second person through this) buy the brand, to my mind, there's now the implication you'll be doing something with it. You've now put a big target on your back for all the users, including the socially awkward ones, to start pestering you about decisions that were made long before you had any involvement, and offer their opinions about what you should be doing with your various resources. If you get tired or fed up or if real life gets in the way and you want to walk away, you have to divest from the brand or you're just as bad as whoever held it before you.

(Also, there's the nagging implication that you'd somehow be legally liable for the actions of prior incarnations of the company, though if the contract is written correctly, that liability doesn't come along with the brand name. Hopefully there were some sharp lawyers involved on the purchaser's side to iron those wrinkles out.)

I understand the novelty of this, but my personal take is there is no way in hell I would want to assume a defunct brand and try to restart it - there are too many ways that goes off the rails.

 

[GipoScribantino]

There are a lot of risks for flesh persons buying brands from corporations and such, that's obvious.
My point wasn't just about this case, it was about famous names being left to rot even when there is still enough interest to be able to produce something, exactly because they were once famous.
I don't know how many there are other than Commodore, but I'm fairly sure it's not the only one.

 

[Angry_Panda]

It's certainly not, but as long as the bean counters are driving the decisions, it's going to happen. And as soon as someone comes sniffing around about a name, the current holders are likely to see how much they can get for it. (But I don't think I'm saying anything you or anyone else doesn't know here.)

A couple of folks I know who have been successful in turning their hobbies into businesses have been able to separate their passion from the bottom line, and make decisions based on the latter rather than the former. I also know a couple who tried and failed, and I think their inability to distinguish between the two is what caused most of their problems.