> The Atari ST was created after Jack Tramiel bought Atari Inc's former computer/console division, sacked most of the existing staff and had his own people work on an entirely new design that was far more along the lines of "Power without the Price".
If I remember correctly, it was a bit more convoluted than that. In essence, some people left Atari and founded the Amiga Corporation to build a next-gen computer.
Skip forward a few years, and Jack Tramiel acrimoniously left Commodore and bought Atari from Warner Bros. At the same time, Amiga were running out of money and ended up taking a loan from Atari, with the caveat that if they failed to repay the loan, Atari would take ownership of their IP.
So, Atari and Jack were sitting there and rubbing their hands together in glee at the thought of getting this next-gen technology effectively for free, when in stepped his old company, Commodore. Who first gave Amiga Corp the money needed to pay off Atari's loan, and then purchased them outright.
Unsurprisingly, Jack was a little incensed by this, and demanded that his Atari engineers build a rival computer which could undercut Commodore's marvel machine. And at least partly thanks to the powers of litigation (deliberate or otherwise), they were able to steal a march on Commodore and release the Atari ST several months before the first Amigas began to appear on shop shelves...
Biting the hand that feeds IT
