A Rogues' Gallery Of California Swashbucklers

They were the high fliers of high tech: aggressive, creative, and supremely egotistical. The companies they founded made them rich and famous. But today, those companies are in trouble, and many are being run by somebody else.

 

CHARTER MEMBERS

Sirjang Lal "Jugi" Tandon, 43, Tandon Corp.

Adam Osborne, 45, Osborne Computer Corp.

Steven Jobs, 31, Apple Computer Inc.

Alan Shugart, 55, Seagate Technology

A veteran of IBM Corp.'s San Jose, Calif., labs, the birthplace of the modern disk-drive industry, Shugart pioneered many of the first small microcomputer disk drives. In 1973, he founded Shugart Associates, later bought and dumped by Xerox Corp. He launched Seagate in 1979, building a large manufacturing facility in Scotts Valley, sough of San Jose, only to move manufacturing operations to Singapore in 1984. Singapore did not provide the salvation that was expected, however, and now, like Tandon, Seagate has its share of troubles, due largely to IBM order cutbacks and a marketplace with too many competitors.

Nolan Bushnell, 43, Atari Inc. and Pizza Time Theatre Inc.

The engaging, pipe-smoking Bushnell was once perhaps the most popular figure in Silicon Valley. A classic American gadgeteer, his big score was developing the Pong video game at Atari in the early 1970s. After Atari sold out to Warner Communications Inc. in 1976 for $28 million, things began going sour. Pizza Time Theatre, a restaurant chain with robot entertainers, fell flat due to poor marketing and even poorer pizza. Some insiders say that Bushnell refused to listen to others on his board. The company went Chapter 11 in early 1984. Bushnell is still pushing other ventures.

Jim Toreson, 43, Xebec Corp.

Toreson founded the company in 1974 and grew it to $158 million by 1984. Brilliant and charismatic, he was widely admired for his leadership in "Made in USA" manufacturing strategy. But the company is now having problems, in part due to being a one-man show and in part due to its overreliance on IBM. Like other "go-go" companies of the micro boom, Xebec is plagued with too much production capacity, excessive inventories, and flat sales. Losses last year amounted to $21 million on less than $150 million in revenues. Insiders lay much of the blame on Toreson's failure to develop a management team. "Everything is done Jim's way," says one. "It's a lone-ranger operation."

Lore Harp, 41, Vector Graphic Inc.

An extrovert German immigrant, Harp founded Vector in a bedroom suite of her suburban house in 1976. She was later joined by her engineer husband, Bob, and together they were brilliant performers. But marital problems led to Bob's departure, and by the early 1980s, the company was falling behind technologically. Today, the company is held together only by the efforts of venture capitalist Jean Deleage and the protection of the U.S. bankruptcy court. Lore, now remarried to Computerworld publisher Patrick McGovern, is said to be launching a new venture involving feminine-hygiene products.

Gordon Campbell, 41, Seeq Technology Inc.

Under this one-time Intel Corp. golden boy, Seeq was among the most ballyhood of Silicon Valley's early semiconductor start-ups. But gregarious, publicity-loving Campbell soon alienated much of his original team. He married fellow founder Maria Ligeti, whose promotion to vice-president led to internal dissension. Campbell's showy style -- he built a lavish sloping roof over his N. San Jose, Calif., headquarters rumored to cost an estimated $500,000 -- may also have offended tough-minded venture capitalist Frank Caulfield. In October 1984, Caulfield engineered Campbell's dethronement. Both Campbell and Ligeti have recently founded separate high-tech ventures.

Gary Friedman, Fortune Systems Corp.

Known as a supersalesman, Friedman launched his microsystem-manufacturing concern in 1980 and took it public two and a half years later, netting the company some $100 million. Now most of that money is gone and so is Friedman, who was eased out by his onetime venture capital admirers in October 1983.