Comments on: Reasons for Escom’s bankruptcy

By: Jon

Jon — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 23:27:55 +0000

Another mid 90s trend which made Escom’s acquisition of Rumbelows look unwise was the rise of the direct sales model for computers.

Pioneered by Dell and Gateway 2000 in the US, Amstrad got in on the act in the UK after buying the Viglen PC brand in 1993. But I also seem to remember lots of small clone builders advertising mail order machines in places like “Computer Shopper” magazine around this time.

By: Pete

Pete — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 16:28:01 +0000

I do remember them pretty much coming out of nowhere in the UK. Suddenly they were on every high street after buying Rumbelows, must have been a huge outlay and massive cost in rebranding and refitting the shops. I guess they underestimated this and the time it would take to start making a profit from them. Buying Commodore didn’t really do them much harm and might have just helped them raise their profile a bit more.
From what I have read ad remember it seemed like they were just buying it for the name and not the Amiga but they did start to make plans once they realised there was still demand. I honestly think with a bit of investment the platform could have continued and competed with Apple with a small percentage of the market.

By: batteman

batteman — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 14:02:46 +0000

Hi David,
Your article is really interesting and, like you, I’m sure Escom’s bankruptcy was not due to Amiga/Commodore but Escom grew to fast and exploded in flight, like a rocket full of gasoline!

PS : Can I translate your article in french, for the online french website Obligement.free.fr (with link to your original article and your name at the top of the translation, like I did for this article of John Passfield about Flight of the Amazon queen : http://obligement.free.fr/articles/coulisses_developpement_flightoftheamazonqueen.php

Thx!