Editing Commodore International (section)

===Commodore Business Machines (Canada) Ltd. (1954–1976)===
[[File:Commodore196x.svg|thumb|Commodore logo (1965–1984)|334x334px]][[Jack Tramiel]] and Manfred Kapp met in the early 1950s while both employed by the Ace Typewriter Repair Company in [[New York City]]. In 1954, they partnered to sell used and reconditioned [[typewriter]]s and used their profits to purchase the Singer Typewriter Company. After acquiring a local dealership selling Everest [[adding machine]]s, Tramiel convinced Everest to give him and Kapp exclusive Canadian rights to its products and established Everest Office Machines in [[Toronto]] in 1955.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Commodore's History in the Adding Machine Business – Commodore International Historical Society |url=https://commodore.international/2022/03/11/commodores-history-in-the-adding-machine-business/ |access-date=2022-07-01 |website=commodore.international |language=en-US}}</ref>

By 1958, the adding machine business was slowing. Tramiel made a connection with an Everest agent in [[England]] who alerted him to a business opportunity to import portable typewriters manufactured by a [[Czechoslovakia]]n company into Canada. On October 10, 1958, Tramiel and Kapp incorporated Commodore Portable Typewriter, Ltd. in Toronto to sell the imported typewriters.<ref>Bagnall, Brian (2006). ''On the Edge: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore'', Variant Press. Page xiii. {{ISBN|0-9738649-0-7}}</ref> Commodore funded its operations through [[factoring (finance)|factoring]] over its first two years but faced a continual cash crunch. To bolster the company's financial condition, Tramiel and Kapp sold a portion of the company to [[Atlantic Acceptance Corporation]], one of Canada's largest financing companies, and Atlantic President C. Powell Morgan became the chairman of Commodore. In 1962, the company went public on the [[Montreal Stock Exchange]],<ref>Bagnall, Brian (2006). ''On the Edge: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore'', Variant Press. Page 532. {{ISBN|0-9738649-0-7}}</ref> under the name of Commodore Business Machines (Canada), Ltd.

With the financial backing of Atlantic Acceptance, Commodore expanded rapidly in the early 1960s. It purchased a factory in [[West Germany]] to manufacture its typewriters, began distributing office furniture for a Canadian manufacturer, and sold Pearlsound radio and stereo equipment. In 1965, it purchased the furniture company for which it served as the distributor and moved its headquarters to its facilities on Warden Avenue in the [[Scarborough, Toronto|Scarborough]] district of Toronto.<ref>{{cite web |title=Might's Greater Toronto city directory, 1966 |url=https://archive.org/details/torontocitydirectory1966/page/n37/mode/2up |website=Internet Archive |year=1966 |access-date=19 October 2020}}</ref> That same year, the company made a deal with a Japanese manufacturer to produce adding machines for Commodore, and purchased the office supply retailer Wilson Stationers to serve as an outlet for its typewriters.

In 1965, Atlantic Acceptance collapsed when it failed to make a routine payment. A subsequent investigation by a [[royal commission]] revealed a massive fraud scheme in which the company falsified financial records to acquire loans funneled into a web of subsidiaries where C. Powell Morgan held a personal stake. Morgan then pocketed the money or invested it in several unsuccessful ventures. Commodore was one of the Atlantic subsidiaries directly implicated in this scheme. Despite heavy suspicion, the commission could not find evidence of wrongdoing by Tramiel or Kapp. The scandal left Commodore in a worse financial position as it had borrowed heavily from Atlantic to purchase Wilson, and the loan was called in. Due to the financial scandal, Tramiel could only secure a bridge loan by paying interest well above the prime rate and putting the German factory up as collateral. Tramiel worked with a financier named [[Irving Gould]] to extricate himself, who brokered a deal to sell Wilson Stationers to an American company. Commodore now owed Gould money and still did not have sufficient capital to meet its payments, so Tramiel sold 17.9% of the company to Gould in 1966 for ${{Format price|500000}} (equivalent to ${{Format price|{{Inflation|US-GDP|500000|1966}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}). As part of the deal, Gould became the company's new chairman.[[File:Commodore Calculator Minuteman MM3S-4546.jpg|thumb|Minuteman MM3S]]

Tramiel saw some of the first electronic calculators through his Japanese contacts in the late 1960s. He pivoted from adding machines to marketing calculators produced by companies like [[Casio]] under the Commodore brand name. In 1969, Commodore began manufacturing its electronic calculators. Commodore soon had a profitable calculator line and was one of the more popular brands in the early 1970s, producing both consumer and scientific/programmable calculators. However, in 1975, [[Texas Instruments]], the leading supplier of calculator parts, entered the market directly and put out a line of machines priced at less than Commodore's cost for the parts. Commodore obtained an infusion of cash from Gould, which Tramiel used beginning in 1976 to purchase several second-source chip suppliers, including [[MOS Technology|MOS Technology, Inc.]], to assure his supply.<ref name="New Scientist Sep 1976">{{cite magazine|title=Calculator maker integrates downwards |magazine=New Scientist |volume=71 |issue=1017 |page=541 |date=September 9, 1976 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xUAV0VcszIQC&pg=PA541 |issn=0262-4079 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150318175222/http://books.google.com/books?id=xUAV0VcszIQC&pg=PA541 |archive-date=March 18, 2015 }}</ref> He agreed to buy MOS, which was having troubles of its own, on the condition that its chip designer Chuck Peddle join Commodore directly as head of engineering.

In 1976, Commodore Business Machines (Canada) Ltd. was dissolved and replaced by the newly formed Bahamanian corporation Commodore International, which became the new parent of the Commodore group of companies.<ref>{{cite news | newspaper=The Toronto Star | date=August 18, 1976 | title=Commodore Reorganizes in Bahamas | page=C8}}</ref>