Commodore made the best-selling computer in history — then went bankrupt a decade later

Commodore International was founded in 1958 by Jack Tramiel as a typewriter repair and sales business in Toronto. It pivoted into calculators in the 1960s, and in 1976 Tramiel acquired MOS Technology to secure chip supply — a move that brought engineer Chuck Peddle into the company. Peddle convinced Tramiel that the future was home computers, leading to the Commodore PET in 1977, the VIC-20 in 1981 (the first computer to sell more than one million units), and the legendary Commodore 64 in 1982.

The Commodore 64 was the best-selling computer model in history, with some 22 million units sold. It succeeded through advanced sound and aggressive pricing from its own chip fabs. In 1983 Tramiel launched a price war that shook the entire industry, and Commodore's sales reached $1 billion. At one point the company was selling as many computers as the rest of the industry combined.

Tramiel resigned in January 1984 after clashing with Gould over strategy — he wanted a low-cost IBM PC, Gould the Amiga. He bought Atari that July and competed directly against his former company. Under Gould, Commodore acquired Amiga for $25 million and launched the Amiga 1000 in 1985, but it was poorly marketed and never reached its potential. The company suffered from slow products, poor developer relations and rapid CEO turnover. By 1993 the PC market had left it behind. Commodore filed for Chapter 11 liquidation on April 29, 1994, and assets sold at auction for $14 million.