This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations.(February 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
VisiCorp
Founded
1977 Massachusetts
Founders
Dan Fylstra, Peter R Jennings
VisiCorp[1] was an early personal computer software publisher. Its most famous products were Microchess,[2] Visi On[3][4] and VisiCalc.[5]
It was founded in 1977[6] by Dan Fylstra as the software publisher Personal Software. In 1978, it merged with Peter R. Jennings's Toronto-based software publisher Micro-Ware, with the two taking a 50% ownership each in the resulting company and Personal Software becoming the name of the combined company. It continued to publish the software from its original constituents, including Jennings' Microchess program for the MOS Technology KIM-1 computer, and later Commodore PET, Apple II, TRS-80, and Atari 8-bit computers.[7] In 1979 it released VisiCalc, which would be so successful that in 1982 the company was renamed VisiCorp Personal Software, Inc..
VisiCalc was the first electronic spreadsheet for personal computers, developed by Software Arts and published by VisiCorp.
Visi On was the first GUI for the IBM PC.
Bill Gates came to see Visi On at a trade show, and this seems what inspired him to create a windowed GUI for Microsoft. VisiCorp was larger than Microsoft at the time, and the two companies entered negotiations to merge, but could not agree on who would sit on the board of directors. Microsoft Windows when it was released included a wide range of drivers, so it could run on many different PCs, while Visi On cost more, and had stricter system requirements.[7] Lotus released Lotus 1-2-3 in 1983. Microsoft eventually released its own spreadsheet Microsoft Excel.[8]
Early alumni of this company included Ed Esber who would later run Ashton-Tate, Bill Coleman who would found BEA Systems, Mitch Kapor founder of Lotus Software and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Rich Melmon who would co-found Electronic Arts, Bruce Wallace author of Asteroids in Space, and Brad Templeton who would found early dot-com company ClariNet and was the director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation from 2000 to 2010.
VisiCorp agreed in 1979 to pay 36-50% of VisiCalc revenue to Software Arts,[1] compared to typical software royalties of 8-12%. It composed 70% of VisiCorp revenue in 1982 and 58% in 1983. By 1984 InfoWorld stated that although VisiCorp's $43 million in 1983 sales made it the world's fifth-largest microcomputer-software company, it was "a company under siege" with "rapidly declining" VisiCalc sales and mediocre Visi On sales. The magazine wrote that "VisiCorp's auspicious climb and subsequent backslide will no doubt become a How Not To primer for software companies of the future, much like Osborne Computer's story has become the How Not To for the hardware industry."
[9] VisiCorp was sold to Paladin Software after a legal feud between Software Arts and VisiCorp.
^ abAndrew Pollack (February 26, 1984). "How a software winner went sour". The New York Times.
^"Oral History of Peter Jennings | Mastering the Game | Computer History Museum".
^Lemmons, Phil (June 1983). "A Guided Tour of Visi On". BYTE. Vol. 8, no. 6. pp. 256–278. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
^Woodmansee, George (July 1983). "Visi On's Interface Design". BYTE. Vol. 8, no. 7. pp. 166–182. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
^"A sidebar to the article "Ten Years of Rows and Columns" published in Byte, issue 13/1989, pp. 326-328". Yeah, we called it all sorts of things – electronic ledger, electronic blackboard, visible calculator – that's what we finally based the name, VisiCalc, on.
^Nooney, Laine (2023). The Apple II Age: How the Computer Became Personal. University of Chicago Press. p. 90. ISBN 978-0-226-81652-4.
^ ab"Oral History of Peter Jennings". Computer History Museum. 1 February 2005.
^Miller, Michael J. (July 7, 1986). "First Look: Supercalc 4 challenging 1-2-3 with new tactic". InfoWorld. Vol. 8, no. 27. Infoworld Media Group, Inc. p. 30.
^Caruso, Denise (1984-04-02). "Company Strategies Boomerang". InfoWorld. Vol. 6, no. 14. pp. 80–83. Retrieved 10 February 2015.
VisiCorp was an early personal computer software publisher. Its most famous products were Microchess, Visi On and VisiCalc. It was founded in 1977 by Dan...
personal computers running MS-DOS. Visi On was developed by VisiCorp. It was one of the first GUIs on a personal computer. Visi On was never popular, as it had...
VisiCalc ("visible calculator") is the first spreadsheet computer program for personal computers, originally released for the Apple II by VisiCorp on October...
influential graphical user interface-based operating environment program by VisiCorp's for IBM PC compatible personal computers running early versions of MS-DOS...
development at VisiCorp, the distributors of the VisiCalc spreadsheet, and selling all his rights to VisiPlot and VisiTrend to VisiCorp. Shortly after...
Commodore PET (VisiCorp 1978) Consultant, VisiCalc port to Commodore PET (VisiCorp 1979) Port, Checker King game for Apple and Atari (VisiCorp 1979) Port...
of spreadsheets became widely known due to VisiCalc, it was developed for the Apple II in 1979 by VisiCorp staff Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston, significantly...
development at VisiCorp, the distributors of the VisiCalc spreadsheet, and selling all his rights to Visi-Plot and Visi-Trend to Visi-Corp. Shortly after...
released in 1983. Concurrently to the Lisa, VisiCorp (noted for the VisiCalc spreadsheet) was working on the Visi On GUI environment (first demonstrated at...
announcement can cause others to respond with their own. When VisiCorp announced Visi On in November 1982, it promised to ship the product by spring...
selling personal computer applications - including VisiCalc. He joined VisiCorp because he admired VisiCalc inventors Bob Frankston and Dan Bricklin. Similar...
Does Windows, InfoWorld, November 21, 1983 Can Visicorp come back?, InfoWorld, July 2, 1984 Finally, Visi On is here, InfoWorld, October 31, 1983 12 Years...
The first GUIs Xerox Star user interface demonstration, 1982 "VisiCorpVisi On". The Visi On product was not intended for the home user. It was designed...
Brownlee at the University of Auckland Algol60 1978 VisiCalc Dan Bricklin, Bob Frankston marketed by VisiCorp none (unique language) 1979 TI BASIC (TI 99/4A)...
Frankston in 1979 to develop VisiCalc, which was published by a separate company, Personal Software Inc., later named VisiCorp. Software Arts also developed...
computers by Micro-Ware and its successor company Personal Software (later VisiCorp) between 1976 and 1980, with later versions featuring graphics and more...
graphics in general. VisiCalc – first spreadsheet computer program for personal computers, originally released for the Apple II by VisiCorp. MIT alumni Dan...
Frankston founded Software Arts, Inc., and began selling VisiCalc, via a separate company named VisiCorp. Along with Frankston, Bricklin started writing versions...
He recruited his original employees from Apple, Atari, Xerox PARC, and VisiCorp, and got Steve Wozniak to agree to sit on the board of directors. Hawkins...
700,000 units by 1983. Fylstra's software products company, later called VisiCorp, was the #1 personal-computer software publisher in 1981 with $20 million...
Stream The Apple Lisa and VisiCorp'sVisi On are demonstrated. Interviewed: John Couch (Apple Computer), Bill Coleman (VisiCorp). 3 "Computer Music" February 19...
games Visco Corporation Japan 1982 Wardner no longer publishes video games VisiCorp Massachusetts, United States 1976 Zork known as Personal Software until...
publishing entertainment software altogether and rebranded as VisiCorp in 1982 to align with its VisiCalc spreadsheet software. Rather than find another publisher...
for UNIX workstations. VisiCorp'sVisi On was a GUI designed to run on DOS for IBM PCs. It was released in December 1983. Visi On had many features of...
investing; most successfully a $20,000 stake in VisiCorp, the inventor of the spreadsheet. He later sold his VisiCorp stock for $800,000, eight months after Sevin...
Global Information
