IBM Corp has left a very unhappy partner in Germany with the withdrawal of the Series/1 minicomputer: IBM software partner Stark Systemtechnik GmbH has a very sour taste in its mouth, according to Computerwoche, and it blames IBM for its recent bankruptcy; it claims that because IBM vowed undying support for the Series/1 in 1987, Stark went all out over the next five years to develop a suite to run under IBM’s AIX – and sales of the software for the Series/1 was supposed to be the cash cow to pay for the costly project, so when IBM pulled the rug from under the Series/1 – shouldn’t Stark have seen it coming? – this was a fatal blow to Stark, which would have had to close down by 1988 if it didn’t find other financing; finally the company thought it was safe when Frankfurter Heizungs-und Lftungsbauer Landis & Gyr came forward, only to be left in the lurch a second time when, last autumn, the investor had to pull out, leaving the bereft Stark GmbH bankrupt.
