Metabox

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Metabox AG

logo
legal form Corporation
founding 1996
resolution 2005
Reason for dissolution insolvency
Seat Hildesheim , Germany
Branch Consumer electronics

The Metabox AG and met @ box AG was a company of consumer electronics - and multimedia industry and geography based in Hildesheim , the last primarily with the development and sale of set-top boxes and devices for interactive television employed.

background

The company was founded in 1996 by former development engineers and managers of Amiga Technologies as PIOS Computer AG . It was later renamed Metabox AG . Initially, it was planned to bring PowerPC -based PReP computers ( Macintosh clones) onto the market. After numerous test wins for the Macintosh clones (Keenya, Magna), Apple ended MacOS licensing in 1997 after Steve Jobs returned, so that this product line had to be discontinued. Later on, CHRP computers and PowerPC cards for Amiga computers were considered.

history

Metabox 1000 (Phoenix)

At the beginning, PowerPC cards for Apple computers (JoeCard brand) and Macintosh-compatible computers (Keenya, Magna) were developed and successfully sold internationally. In addition, the company planned to develop similar cards for the Amiga brand computers (AmiJoe brand), for which a native operating system ("PowerOS") should also be written by external programmers.

At the same time, the first Internet set-top boxes MB50 (cooperation with Ravisent) and MB500 (developed under OS / 2 ) were built and sold. An editorial office for Internet TV (MetaTV) was created. The development of a highly modular, Coldfire -based set-top box , which already includes functions such as DVD player , hard disk recording and DVB-T , began in 1999/2000 (Metabox 1000 or Phoenix). MHP support was planned.

However, a dramatic slump followed in 2001 for Metabox AG, which is listed on the Neuer Markt . Due to mismanagement, the attention of the relevant media was caught, which doubted a report by the company about a multi-million dollar contract. In May 2001 the company had to file for bankruptcy .

However, Metabox's story did not end with filing for bankruptcy. A community of shareholders was founded and supported the company. In early November 2001, the bankruptcy petition was surprisingly withdrawn at the last minute. However, all shareholders who had regained hope were disappointed. At the beginning of April 2002, the board announced that they would be leaving the Neuer Markt. A few months later, on August 30, 2002, the board again filed for insolvency. In October 2002, all employees and the remaining Metabox 1000 developers were finally laid off.

Important managers at Metabox AG were Stefan Domeyer (founder & CEO), Geerd Ulrich Ebeling (co-founder & CEO, Operations) and Herbert Steinhauer (last member of the board). Important co-founders were the Amiga veterans Dave Haynie (technology), Dr. Peter Kittel and Andy Finkel. Stefan Domeyer himself had previously worked as managing director for Amiga Technologies.

Amstrad GmbH was an important subsidiary of Metabox AG .

The crisis

The Neuer Markt was a start-up exchange where a number of young companies were able to raise equity from their foundation in 1997 to their dissolution in 2004. These included many companies that, based on their risk assessment, could otherwise only have hoped for support from private venture capital (from venture capital investment companies). Companies in the context of the Internet boom of the late 1990s were initially highly valued, but later had to file for bankruptcy or be closed due to (supposed or actual) fraud.

In this euphoric mood on the stock exchange, Metabox AG was able to place its shares long before the realization of a mass product - a process seen several times in this phase of the New Market, in which many shares were given high price gains due to the sheer hope of future markets. This fact of high market values ​​was later seen by many observers in retrospect, i. H. after the speculative bubble burst, criticized. However, the recklessness of many investors, often driven by greed and euphoric buy recommendations from "analysts" and "stock market gurus", promoted this development.

In this environment, which was later increasingly critically observed, Metabox AG developed an internet-compatible set-top box (Metabox 1000) as the successor to earlier products, but its completion was increasingly delayed. During the boom in the Neuer Markt, Metabox AG had announced large-scale contracts worth millions for the new box, but these were later not implemented due to the company's insolvency. An ad hoc announcement in April 2000 that reported that a foreign company had concluded a contract with a subsidiary of Metabox for the purchase of 500,000 digital multimedia boxes worth the equivalent of around EUR 255 million became a scandal. In fact, there was only a preliminary contract (letter of intent), which, however, already contained a firm purchase obligation for the buyer. Immediately after the publication, the share price rose from 38.90 to at times up to 83.80 euros.

The fact that the name of the contractual partner was not mentioned even when asked, called numerous critics on the scene. Several reporters and stock market experts accused the company of legal violations, which, however, could not initially be clearly proven. Finally, the public prosecutor opened an investigation against those responsible at Metabox AG. There were massive price drops. The founder & CEO Stefan Domeyer was sentenced in July 2004 in Hildesheim to a prison term of seven months, which was suspended on probation. He also had to pay 10,000 euros on probation. The court regarded it as proven that he had driven up the price of the Metabox share in the year 2000 through the publication of a false mandatory stock exchange announcement ( ad hoc announcement ). In this announcement it was alleged that the company had “taken another important step in the international marketing of its Internet TV concept”, that it had “a contract for the purchase of 500,000 interactive, digital multimedia set-top boxes worth of around 500,000,000 German marks closed ”.

At the end of 2005, Domeyer failed with an application for an appeal to the Federal Court of Justice (BGH). The Karlsruhe judges saw in the judgment of the Hildesheim Regional Court no legal error to the detriment of the accused and rejected the appeal by decision.

Ultimately, the company failed to technically complete the new generation of boxes and had to file for bankruptcy in 2001.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jobs touts “very cool technology”. In: CNET News. October 9, 1997, accessed March 14, 2013.
  2. ↑ Future project: PowerOS In: Amiga Fever. Issue 4/1999.
  3. ↑ Marcus Rohwetter: Creeping disempowerment. Zeit Online , accessed on February 16, 2011 : "Now the shareholders are conquering the scandalous company Metabox"
  4. ↑ Clemens von Frentz: Metabox: And bye! . In: manager magazin . April 3, 2002
  5. ^ The ad hoc announcement of April 10, 2000 . manager magazine. January 13, 2003. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
  6. ↑ Suspended sentence for the ex-boss . manager magazine. July 8, 2004. Retrieved August 26, 2012.
  7. ^ The ad hoc announcement of April 10, 2000 . manager magazine. January 13, 2003. Retrieved July 15, 2014.