True story. Eagle Computer's founder, Dennis Barnhart, had quickly
established Eagle as one of the stronger PC-clone makers in 1983, and the
company was
slowly picking up market share as businesses and consumers took Compaq's lead
and started embracing non-IBM machines.
Eagle went public in June '83, and it was a big deal in both Silicon Valley
and Wall Street, which gave Eagle millions of dollars in much-needed working
capital and instantly made Barnhart a wealthy man. Barnhart was so ecstatic
over the offering that he decided to treat himself to a new yacht. So, just
hours after his company went public, the Eagle chief executive set out for
lunch with a yacht salesman. But after lunch, Barnhart, who was at the wheel
of
his $70,000 Ferrari (in 1983 dollars) failed to negotiate a turn and went
airborne, not far from Eagle's headquarters in Los Gatos, Calif. He was
pronounced dead soon after. The company never recovered from the loss and,
despite
great effort, became yet another casualty of the clone wars.
In 1984, IBM sued Eagle Computer Systems for copyright violation of the IBM
PC's BIOS, and won.
Shaun English
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