https://dfarq.homeip.net/thomas-rattigan-short-lived-commodore-ceo/ The Silicon UndergroundThe Silicon Underground The Silicon Underground David L. Farquhar on technology old and new, computer security, and more Menu * About * Archives * Home * Privacy policy * Recent Comments Home >> Retro Computing >> Thomas Rattigan, short-lived Commodore CEO Thomas Rattigan, short-lived Commodore CEO Dave Farquhar Retro Computing April 1, 2025April 6, 2025 4 Comments On April 23, 1987, Thomas Rattigan drove to work just as he would any other day. But when he arrived at Commodore's office building in suburban Philadelphia that morning, company guards informed him he'd been fired. They escorted him from the premises, not even giving him a chance to gather his family photos from his desk. It sounded like a cruel April Fool's joke, but it wasn't April Fool's Day. That was the day Commodore promoted him, on April Fool's Day 1986. Rattigan ended up having the last laugh, although it took a few years. Thomas Rattigan, former Pepsi executive former Commodore CEO Thomas RattiganThomas Rattigan lasted one year and 22 days as Commodore CEO. He didn't do a bad job. Irving Gould just didn't like him. He sued Commodore and won. Thomas John Rattigan, born July 20, 1937, in Boston, was Commodore's second CEO after Jack Tramiel, replacing the enigmatic yet forgettable Marshall Smith. Rattigan earned a Bachelor of Science at Boston College in 1960 and an Master of Business Administration at Harvard Business School in 1962. He joined PepsiCo in 1970 where he rose to the position of CEO of PepsiCo International in 1982. Apple Computer had hired Pepsi president John Sculley in 1983. So when Commodore needed a new executive, it copied Apple and hired Rattigan as COO in April 1985, intending to prepare him to become the next CEO. His salary was $600,000. About a year later, Commodore either decided they'd had their fill of Marshall Smith, or that Rattigan was ready to take over as CEO. Maybe both. We'll probably never know for certain. Commodore's April Fool's CEO On April 1, 1986, Rattigan took over as CEO from Smith. He continued the downsizing Smith had initiated, cut unprofitable product lines and initiated the development of two more models of Commodore's flagship Amiga 1000 computer, the Amiga 500 and 2000. He cut out middle management and cut production, initiating three separate rounds of layoffs, then he increased advertising. As demand increased, he started hiring assembly line workers again. Rattigan described company operations as hand to mouth, producing Commodore 64 and 128 computers about as quickly as he could sell them. He correctly didn't see the Amiga as a business computer, but he was gone before his new Amiga models reached the market. Despite turning the company from a $237 million three-quarter loss to a $22 million profit in one quarter, Irving Gould fired Rattigan, then Gould temporarily took over as CEO. Rattigan arrived for work the morning of April 23, 1987 as usual, and company guards informed him he was fired. His tenure of one year and 22 days was not unusual for a Commodore executive. It basically became a Commodore tradition. Why Commodore fired Thomas Rattigan as CEO The only reason Gould ever gave was that Rattigan conducted himself in a "high profile manner." That sounds like a CEO's job, especially when working for an absentee boss like Gould. Rattigan sued Commodore for $9 million of lost income, due to the breach of contract. He won the suit in 1991. So Commodore ended up paying Rattigan anyway, but without the benefit of services rendered. What happened to Commodore and Thomas Rattigan afterward None of Thomas Rattigan's successors like Max Toy were especially successful, but none of them besides Mehdi Ali had more than a year either. This is reflected in Commodore's uneven financial history through 1994. The corporate drama has led to some speculation that Irving Gould was running Commodore as a stock scam, but I think that's an oversimplification. As for Thomas Rattigan, he resurfaced in 1991 as CEO of G. Heileman Brewing Co., and in 1996 as a board member of RJR Nabisco. If you found this post informative or helpful, please share it! * share * share * save * share * share * share * pocket * share * email * RSS feed [dave_farquhar][svg] Dave Farquhar David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000. Like this: Like Loading... Related stories by Dave Farquhar * - How Mark Cuban became rich * AMD K6 released April 2, 1997 - 4 thoughts on "Thomas Rattigan, short-lived Commodore CEO" * S.M. Oliva April 1, 2025 at 8:44 am Permalink A fun bit of trivia: Rattigan's breach of contract trial against Commodore featured two men who played prominent roles in presidential administrations. One of the key witnesses was retired Gen. Alexander Haig, a Commodore board member who previously served as Secretary of State and White House Chief of Staff. And the judge who presided over the trial was Michael Mukasey, who later served as Attorney General of the United States. Reply + Dave FarquharPost author April 1, 2025 at 8:41 pm Permalink The Commodore story is full of weird connections! I sure wish it had a happier ending but I'm the guy who has Commodores hanging on my wall in my office so of course I do. Reply * neo April 2, 2025 at 1:34 pm Permalink how does the Commodore 64 compare with the Color Computer 3 with 512k? I saw the Color Computer 3 at Radio Shack with cm8 but my friends owned Commodore 64 Reply + Dave FarquharPost author April 2, 2025 at 2:58 pm Permalink The CPU in the CoCo 3 was way better than the 6502 derivative in the C-64 but the C-64 had much better sound. The CoCo 3 had nice high-res RGB graphics but no sprites. The C-64 had sprites, which made programming graphics much easier. And the C-64's color palette was less garish. It came down to what you wanted to do with the machine, the CoCo 3 could do things the 64 wouldn't, like run OS9 and it could theoretically at least have a much better selection of programming languages. But the C-64 had a much larger software library available in spite of being less powerful. I had a C-64 and traded up to a C-128 and didn't feel at all limited by it until the late 80s when I saw an Amiga and a PC with VGA and Ad Lib. Reply Leave a ReplyCancel reply This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. 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