More Questions

4. We've heard that some employees have been staying on a volunteer basis. Why have they done this and what are they trying to accomplish?

See answer to number 3. In addition, the team has been together through a lot. We truly believed that if we had been able to get through our financial hurdles, we would have had a future not only in graphics but also in other products.

From what we've heard, a number of folks even stayed after the upper management team left. Now that's dedication - at that point, it was probably very clear that the company was going under. As salaries had already been suspended for some time, it's amazing to hear what some of these folks were willing to do, solely for the benefit of satisfying the customer.

5. What would you say was the reason for Hercules' current state?

People talk about mismanagement. If anything, mismanagement can be traced back to upper management from nearly a decade ago. The last Hercules team undertook the task of bringing Hercules to profitability. Unfortunately, the add-in board industry had become so competitive. We've seen a number of firms come and go within the last few years, and they certainly had more financing than we did.

For a while, especially in the Voodoo2 era of graphics, companies like Jazz Multimedia, California Graphics, Metabyte's Wicked3D division, and even well-to-do Canopus all focused solely on being graphics card vendors. In fact, it was like everyone and their grandpa decided to offer a 3D accelerated video card. This certainly couldn't last forever, but the fall of Hercules certainly was a surprise and shock to all of us.

6. Were there any make-or-break deals for Hercules that prompted or resulted in this abrupt departure?

We've had a number of opportunities on the table over the last two years. However, circumstances beyond our control prevented Hercules from closing any of these deals.

Several months before the upper management team has left, we've heard about proposed mergers and buyouts, specifically one involving ELSA, which obviously ended up falling through. In fact, we heard substantiated rumors about Hercules' imminent demise back in July, but back at that point, everyone at the company still had reason to be optimistic about the future.

7. Was Hercules looking to expand past the PC Graphics market? What other markets was Hercules considering?

Absolutely...early on, management recognized that in order to grow and promote the company, Hercules had to explore other product arenas. I'd rather not make public our old product plans.

Well, maybe there are opportunities for the future still. After all, the company as an entity may be gone, but the team is still around.