Michelin star lunch at L’ortolan
On June 18th 1999 co-founder Peter Newman sold the computer company that he had built up over the previous 8 years, to a successful American Corporation. In 1991 Peter formed a company, which he called Ç-Dilla. This company focused solely on providing software tools to help electronic publishers stop the CDs that they produced from being copied or used in any way other than what they had sold them for. At that time not many CD-ROMs were being published, nor had many people heard of the new publishing format. Also many people weren't concerned about CDs being copied. The company had started doing something way ahead of its time and found the going hard at first.
During the next few years the company perfected the technique of manufacturing CDs, which could not be copied and found a ready market in the PC games arena, in which by 1998 CD piracy had become rife. This technology came to the attention of a company called Macrovision. They had perfected a means of stopping videocassettes from being copied and were being used by most of the Hollywood film industries to stop films being copied when they went to video cassettes. Macrovision were looking for a technology that could cope with a disc format, they had become successful on the cassette format, so they made an offer to Peter for his company that he could not refuse.
Instead of taking cash he took shares in Macrovision. These shares were listed on the New York stock exchange (NASDAQ) so after holding them for a year, they could be sold. However in order to defer paying capital gains tax, Peter took advantage of the Government scheme to persuade successful entrepreneurs to plough their money back into the economy. This scheme, called the Enterprise Investment Scheme or EIS, made it desirable to invest the proceeds of share sales into other businesses, which is how Peter came to buy L'ortolan.
Peter was introduced to Alan Murchison and formed a partnership that together realised many accolades during its initial two year period. Alan re-opened L’ortolan in September 2001 and gradually regained its reputation as a destination dining experience par excellence, culminating in the revered one star award from the Michelin Red Guide early in 2003. During this period Alan also found time to get married and become the father of a baby daughter which prompted his decision to find a new challenge closer to his home and family in Southampton. Alan then had the task of finding someone who could continue to maintain and build on the l'ortolan name and reputation at the same rate as Alan had initiated. After some searching the services of Daniel Galmiche were secured. A little over a year after leaving Alan Murchison has once again taken up the reins. The story continues....
Michelin star lunch at L’ortolan
On June 18th 1999 co-founder Peter Newman sold the computer company that he had built up over the previous 8 years, to a successful American Corporation. In 1991 Peter formed a company, which he called Ç-Dilla. This company focused solely on providing software tools to help electronic publishers stop the CDs that they produced from being copied or used in any way other than what they had sold them for. At that time not many CD-ROMs were being published, nor had many people heard of the new publishing format. Also many people weren't concerned about CDs being copied. The company had started doing something way ahead of its time and found the going hard at first.
During the next few years the company perfected the technique of manufacturing CDs, which could not be copied and found a ready market in the PC games arena, in which by 1998 CD piracy had become rife. This technology came to the attention of a company called Macrovision. They had perfected a means of stopping videocassettes from being copied and were being used by most of the Hollywood film industries to stop films being copied when they went to video cassettes. Macrovision were looking for a technology that could cope with a disc format, they had become successful on the cassette format, so they made an offer to Peter for his company that he could not refuse.
Instead of taking cash he took shares in Macrovision. These shares were listed on the New York stock exchange (NASDAQ) so after holding them for a year, they could be sold. However in order to defer paying capital gains tax, Peter took advantage of the Government scheme to persuade successful entrepreneurs to plough their money back into the economy. This scheme, called the Enterprise Investment Scheme or EIS, made it desirable to invest the proceeds of share sales into other businesses, which is how Peter came to buy L'ortolan.
Peter was introduced to Alan Murchison and formed a partnership that together realised many accolades during its initial two year period. Alan re-opened L’ortolan in September 2001 and gradually regained its reputation as a destination dining experience par excellence, culminating in the revered one star award from the Michelin Red Guide early in 2003. During this period Alan also found time to get married and become the father of a baby daughter which prompted his decision to find a new challenge closer to his home and family in Southampton. Alan then had the task of finding someone who could continue to maintain and build on the l'ortolan name and reputation at the same rate as Alan had initiated. After some searching the services of Daniel Galmiche were secured. A little over a year after leaving Alan Murchison has once again taken up the reins. The story continues....