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chasilyesterday at 9:28 PM1 replyview on HN

Olivetti is famous for having bought Acorn, and owning the ARM architecture.

They likely think about that missed opportunity deeply in their corporate culture.

I don't know the story of how they let that get away.

"Such was the secrecy surrounding the ARM CPU project that when Olivetti were negotiating to take a controlling share of Acorn in 1985, they were not told about the development team until after the negotiations had been finalised...

"Olivetti would eventually relinquish majority control of Acorn in early 1996, selling shares to US and UK investment groups to leave the company with a shareholding in Acorn of around 45%."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn_Computers


Replies

bonziniyesterday at 10:02 PM

Unfortunately they don't have anymore a corporate culture worth speaking of... These days all you see their brand on is cash registers.