Tom and PB header includes

[José Roca]

3) Wishful thinking.

[Michael Stefanik]

I'm not sure what would be accomplished by buying the company, other than to simply continue selling PowerBASIC as it exists now. My understanding is that the compiler itself is written in x86 assembler, which is inherently non-portable. If the goal was to expand its market with 64-bit and cross-platform support, I think you'd essentially be looking at a rewrite in C++ using wxWidgets or Qt4 for the UI portions. You might as well just start from scratch and just use a similar syntax to make porting existing programs as simple as possible.

[Brice Manuel]

Any thoughts on what the value of PB roughly is?

I can't comment on value, but it would cost you at least $160,000 to buy it based on the debt we are actually aware of.  Who knows how much other debt exists.

[Paul Squires]

You would simply buy the assets you're interested in (code base, customer list). Buying the shares (ie. the company) would of course get you the assets but also the corresponding debt. PB would sell the valuable assets, pay off as much debt as they can, and probably declare bankruptcy after that.

[Paul Squires]

You might as well just start from scratch and just use a similar syntax to make porting existing programs as simple as possible.

Exactly. You're better off building a compiler using a more portable and higher level language, and simply emulate the existing PB language. A few years ago, PB attempted to re-write the compiler using PB itself. Looks like that was never completed probably because Bob was way too comfortable programming in ASM rather than his own PB language.

[James Klutho]

A business with tangible assets might be worth 4 times annual cashflow which is rough and dirty.  Software with it short shelf life and in "as is" condition would be quite a bit less.  It would of course be more, if on going improvements could be made to keep the beast alive.  I sense that PowerBasic's cashflow is very weak at the moment and with the overhead of Leaderchip at a minimum, might not be positive.  Being that updates of the software would be very hard (if not impossible) and throw in Eric's liability (and maybe others we don't know about) I would say the company is practically worthless.  Tully sold Ionic Wind for about $3,000 a few years back - so you get the idea.

[Knuth Konrad]

Thanks for your answers, guys.

@Jose: Yeah, I now ... but one can dream.  I've wasted a few grands a couple of years out of the same (sentimental) reasons. But I'd still do it again. I for sure can't continue the product myself or lead a company. But I'd be willing to act as a silent small investor.

@Mike: Well, for a start I'd like to see what you suggested elsewhere: marry the compiler with one of the available IDEs. One specifically comes to mind ...  I've mentioned that a couple of times over at the PB forums: give me a PB compiler with a VB6 IDE - that would be a killer for me. I'm personally not much after portability other than a 64-Bit version.

@Brice: Uuh, didn't know that. I'm not asking for details, but I a few comments here and there now make more sense.

@Paul & James: not sure what to make out of this. It shows that my 'business knowledge' is non-existant.

[James OShea]

You would simply buy the assets you're interested in (code base, customer list). Buying the shares (ie. the company) would of course get you the assets but also the corresponding debt. PB would sell the valuable assets, pay off as much debt as they can, and probably declare bankruptcy after that.

More likely, the Bankruptcy court would sell off the assets and settle the debts at a fraction of the value.  Bankruptcy can get very messy with creditors suing creditors based some perceived preferential payments.  I lived through that.  I keep a close eye on the accounts, clamp down before we get too badly burned, only to be sued by another creditor who wasn't so diligent.

[Brice Manuel]

More likely, the Bankruptcy court would sell off the assets and settle the debts at a fraction of the value.

That is the way it generally works.  Never a pretty sight, either.  I do truly feel sorry for Vivian. 

[James OShea]

As long as Bob set the company up properly and didn't pledge any person property, Vivian should be able to throw the company to the wolves and walk away clean.  It only gets messy if there are promissory notes, Liens against personal property, etc.

My guess is there is almost no tangible property.  The office was obviously rented.  There website was third party.  Seems like the company consists of maybe a couple of thousand dollars in equipment, a tarnished brand name, a company URL and the software source code (compilers and related programs) that while great are at the end of their lifespan as a sellable product.

[Brice Manuel]

I was more meaning the stress of the whole thing is why I feel sorry for her.  Everything really went downhill after Jeff's accident and she has had a mess to deal with.

It will be interesting to see what the announcement will be...

[James OShea]

Agree