Is Atmel on a decline or rise?

[westfw]

Microchip isn't without their flaws either.  I wish the obvious battle between the two companies was more civil; it ends up making both companies look bad (heh.  Sort of like politics!)
"Not betting your small business" on vendor flakiness is harder than it sounds.  You're almost more likely to get into trouble betting on a big company (that somehow screws up, or decides an issue not in your favor) than you are dealing with a moderate-sized company like Atmel.  I mentioned some failed microprocessors; there was also the major Intel Flash Memory Screwup circa 1990; I personally (sortof) had a product that was supposed to get a flash memory card that was hit by that one...
(There are two sizes of vendors.  "Too small to be reliable", and "too big to be cooperative. ?)

[Bored@Work]

(There are two sizes of vendors.  "Too small to be reliable", and "too big to be cooperative. ?)

And those like Atmel. Small, but they think they are too big to be cooperative. Fortunately, if you are a hobbyist and want to start with Atmel AVR micro controllers, there is a ton of material about AVRs out there, and you don't need the cooperation of Atmel. For a commercial design, however, they out-maneuvered  themselves for us.