Risc revival on course as Tulip roots in Acorn soil

The future of Acorn's PC business has taken another twist with the arrival of Tulip on the scene to take up the scrapped Risc 2 project.

The Dutch vendor is attempting to acquire the PC project, known as Phoebe.

But its arrival has stopped a plan by Acorn ex-technical director, Peter Bondar, to save it (PC Dealer, 14 October).

The steering group, appointed by dealers and developers to maintain the Acorn industry, backed Bondar. In a statement, the group said: 'The steering group has reluctantly stepped back from negotiating with Acorn Computers for its product business, upon learning that Acorn is now negotiating directly with another company from the Netherlands. Our experience of negotiating with the present management of Acorn was of sudden, unexpected and unpredictable change in Acorn's negotiating position.'

Andy Mee, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Acorn, said: 'We have done our best since being appointed as the management team to explore a number of channels to market and ways to keep the community alive.'

Acorn has appointed Castle Technology as its distributor. Jack Lillingston, managing director of Castle, confirmed the company gained the rights to distribute Acorn's Risc PC, A7000+ and NCs.

'It has been a dramatic four weeks. My aim is damage limitation. Acorn has been though a bumpy time and the industry and the dealers are too important to lose. We've got to keep it going,' said Lillingston.