Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
6800, and Zilog
Z
80 microprocessors had become the micro-
computer industry's de facto standards and were working inside
general-purpose computers all over the world.
Sharing the power —
To raise its operating capital,
MCM
tapped into various sources
of financing, from bank lines of credit and contracts from other
companies, to sales of the company's common shares and ven-
ture capital investments. Of all these financing options, venture
capital sponsorship had the largest impact on the company's
corporate history.
In 1972, Kutt attracted the attention of a group of individ-
uals associated with the Toronto law firm Borden, Elliot, Kel-
ley & Palmer, later renamed as Borden & Elliot Barristers
and Solicitors. He impressed them with his personal computer
ideas, which he illustrated with the cardboard mockup of the
MCM
/70, and they agreed to provide venture capital through
purchasing
KSI
's common shares. The “outside shareholders,”
as the group, extended by other names, would refer to itself in
some future documents, consisted initially of Vermay Invest-
ments Ltd, B.V. Elliot, W.S. Robertson, and J.T. Johnson. For
Kutt and
KSI
, the participation of outside investors in
KSI
's fi-
nancial program was a promise of steady financing, bank loan
guarantees, and, through the association with Borden & Elliot,
legal services.
In December 1972, the founding group of outside sharehold-
ers purchased 6,290 common shares of
KSI
at $9 per share with
the right to purchase an additional 6,290 at the same price until
the end of September 1974. According to the letter from Robert-
son to Kutt, dated 21 December 1972, this was to be “the first
step in what, it is hoped by all, will be an extensive participa-
tion in the company's financial program.”
