Woz closes wOz
Steven Wozniak founded Wheels of Zeus in 2002 in hopes
of helping "everyday people find everyday things" via GPS smart tags -- a technology said to outperform both
RFID and traditional GPS. Now, according to consulting firm Ravix Group which specializes in financial and human
resources advice, The Woz is closing-up shop at wOz. Wozniak, while down, is certainly not out. Besides his pursuit of
glory in Segway polo matches, he'll be keeping busy with his new company called Acquicor Technology with two other
former Apple execs including one Gil Amelio, a pre-Jobsian Apple CEO. The sole purpose of Acquicor is to snap up a
company somewhere in the tech sector focusing on IP-based convergence within the next 18 months. Surely there must be
something matching this description in the Bay Area's Craig's List?
Filed under: GPS
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
File @ Mar 17th 2006 9:11AM
Acquicor is a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. Known in the industry as a "blank check" firm, the founders are traveling across the country asking institutional investors to offer up $100 million for an acquisition they cannot identify. The rules of SPACs state that the team can't talk to buyout candidates until they've raised enough cash, after which the company has two years to spend most of the money or give it back to investors.
mealies @ Mar 17th 2006 10:17AM
this was mentioned on TWIT episode 40, where Woz was a guest. They go into more detail about the company what they are looking for and what the rules are.
$100 million is a lot to raise for an unknown investment i will be suprised if they make it, even with the big names alongside Woz
carbonview @ Mar 17th 2006 1:31PM
I'm not supprised they are folding. Of all the times my company tried to get in touch with them, zero emails were returned and once a cleaning ladie answered the phone.
I don't think anyone was ever even at the office.
Jorgen Veisdal @ Mar 17th 2006 3:40PM
Like mealis says, this was talked about in twit 40 with Steve and Kevin Mitnick amoung others. The businessmodel is called a SPAC (special acquisition corperation), and is an investion group that acquire companies obviously.
Really interessting model, low risk for the investors.
Larry Levine @ Mar 17th 2006 5:09PM
Gil Amelio and Post and Pre Jobs.
decrypt @ Mar 17th 2006 11:54PM
I'm so sick of hearing about Wozniak. Every time Apple does anything, someone interviews Wozniak and he whines about how Apple is making all kinds of horrible mistakes...The fact of the matter is that Steve has brought Apple from the brink of extinction...changed the way people listen to and buy music and brought Mac OS something I can make my friends jealous of. How has Wozniak changed my life in the last 10 years?
Obviously he's made me read a few too many pointless interviews.
K Kolodziej @ Apr 11th 2006 8:22PM
I would like to inform you about a recent book that covers location-aware technology similar to WoZ and location-aware / positioning applications using alternative positioning technologies to GPS and cellular/telecom.
The book, Local Positioning Systems: LBS Applications and Services, is a highly anticipated 488-page book in the industry because it is the first reference for implementing indoor/outdoor location-aware apps. It was a very good time to publish this book (after 4yrs of research that began at MIT) because the industry is realizing the limitations of GPS and cellular/telecom based positioning. LBS/navigation applications have not been as successful on the market as expected, because they dont work where people are: indoors and in cities. GPS is great, but not for many of the apps we will present on this website. LBS has been trying to become the killer app but privacy, market awareness, and indoor coverage are still pending issues affecting the success of LBS. This book address these issues.
Please see http://indoorLBS.com for the Books preface, etc, if youre interested in reading it.
Regards,
Krzysztof Kolodziej
San Francisco, CA
http://indoorLBS.com