Osborne (computer retailer)

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Osborne was also the name of the largest and most successful computer wholesaler and reseller in Australia. Started by Stanley Falinsky as the exclusive Australian distributor of the original Osborne 1 "luggable" computer featuring a Z-80 processor and running CP/M as the operating system. The company moved into IBM PC compatibles in the mid eighties and had great success with both business and government clients.

In about 1995, they appointed a new CEO who was determined to double their already substantial market share, largely by massive discounting without reducing the traditional good quality of an Osborne machine. The marketing push was financed by demanding that customers place a 100% deposit and then wait six weeks before picking up their new system, and by buying components on ever more generous credit terms from major suppliers like Micronics and Seagate. For about six months the new policy was remarkably effective: Osborne sales boomed and competitors were unable to match their prices. Osborne were selling well below cost, but their retail losses were made up for by currency fluctuations, in particular the steadily rising value of the Australian dollar against the United States dollar.

Inevitably, the currency movement swung back the other way eventually, and Osborne were placed on credit hold by several of their major suppliers: unable to secure more components until at least some of the previous shipments had been paid for, and unable to ship the promised new computers to the many customers who had long since paid in full for them, Osborne declared bankruptcy. The suppliers got a few cents in the dollar, and the customers who had paid AU$2999 in advance got nothing. About six months later,^[when?] giant American computer company Gateway bought the remains of Osborne, and traded as OSBORNE-Gateway (then just "Gateway") for several years, but were unable to recover Osborne's former dominant position and despite making an honest effort to resolve the outstanding issues left by the Osborne collapse, were unsuccessful in the Australian market. Gateway withdrew from Australia in August 2001. Wages that were owed to Osborne's employees were paid out, probably^{[weasel words]} as part of Gateway's buying price for the company.