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Reprinted from PC Magazine, issue 2/1985, pp. 64. VisiCalc’s creator has emerged from his legal battles with high hopes for the future. People in the news: Dan Bricklin WELLESLE Y, Mass. – “We started this whole thing,” says Dan Bricklin, speaking about the use of personal computers in business. “I never used to say that till other people said it,” he adds by way of apology, “but our industry may not have been where it is if we had not done the electronic spreadsheet.”
Bricklin is the chairman of Software Arts, Incorporated. In 1979, he and cofounder Bob Frankston created VisiCalc, the first electronic spreadsheet program, and are acknowledged as being principals in that early cadre of individuals who spurred the fledgling personal computer industry and ran smack up against the hard realities of business life in a multimillion-dollar industry. Hindsight Bricklin and Frankston initially contracted with Personal Software to publish and distribute VisiCalc. Then, VisiCalc’s sales became so impressive and its reputation grew so wide that Personal Software’s name evolved into VisiCorp, with most of its products’ names beginning with “Visi.” “They had other products after VisiCalc” says Bricklin, “but they didn’t name the company after those; they renamed their products Visi this and Visi that. So, it was obviously very important to them.” Business disputes between the two corporations eventually led to lawsuits and countersuits. The companies duked it out for 9 months until they finally settled out of court last fall, with Software Arts regaining the rights to VisiCalc. Bricklin still shows an edge of resentment when he talks of VisiCorp and the way he believes the company treated him and Frankston. He says VisiCorp presented a public image of them that seemed to be aimed at keeping the two men in the broom closet instead of in the limelight. “People got the image that Software Arts was just Bob and me in an attic, sitting around collecting royalty checks, which was not true. Because they (VisiCorp) were helping that image, we lost something that would be of any value to our company.” On reflection, Bricklin thinks he’s been able to identify some of the pitfalls that led to the problems between his company and VisiCorp. “If you have two companies that are very dependent on each other, you should see about getting closer together. Communication is a large portion of it,” he says. “People are trying to generalize a lot of things from the lawsuit that maybe are not appropriate,” comments Bricklin on the tug-of-war between VisiCorp and Software Arts. He sees the dispute as a conflict between developer Software Arts, whose products he says were responsible for 60 percent of VisiCorp’s revenue, and VisiCorp, which wanted to market only “hit” products, but never actually found another product as successful as VisiCalc. In the days before the lawsuits, Bricklin recalls dealing with VisiCorp over distribution of VisiCalc monies. “Most of the other VisiCorp authors were bought out by VisiCorp,” he says. “I thought we almost had a deal once. But, the negotiators had no bargaining power, and the board would shoot down the proposals. It was a lot of money tor them to pay. So, we said we’d buy them out, but they didn’t want that. In fact, they sued us a few days after we proposed it.” The legal proceedings came to an end 9 months later, but, in the meantime, Software Arts had seen its product drop from the top of the bestseller list and had only moderate success with its release of two new products, TK!Solver, an equation processor for personal computers, and Spotlight, a desktop manager. Not worried However, Bricklin isn't worried by the Lotuses and Microsofts of the world. “We were the first spreadsheet, period,” he says. “We lasted a pretty long time, considering everyone and their brother went after us. Even in ‘82, we sold over 200,000 copies of VisiCalc, officially more than Lotus sold. In ‘83, we were still number one, and there was very little advertising for VisiCalc that wasn’t tied to VisiOn. In 1984, there was almost no advertising for VisiCalc except what we did, which made it difficult to stay in the top position. You would expect a product with a lot of competition to have problems. “In a given category, one company frequently dominates for a long time, until something happens that will change it. It’s often a new piece of hardware that causes things to change. Lotus never knocked us out with the Apple (VisiCalc was originally designed for the Apple). We had a great piece of code on the Apple. Our competitors tell us we would still be number one on that machine. On Atari we do OK. Basically, we still do OK on those machines that we’re good on.” Bricklin’s optimism is unbounded. “In terms of coming back, there are many times in the future we will come back, I’m not worried about that. In certain areas, Lotus is just as vulnerable. It’s just that with the machine they’re on they have a very good cash cow. VisiCorp looked invulnerable, because it had all those different products, but it went down real fast.” Bricklin and Software Arts have not hesitated to move on with new products, but the lawsuit has carried over some name identification problems, “People think I’m the chairman of VisiCorp,” he says. “More likely, they think everybody works for a company called VisiCalc. People think when they’re dealing with VisiCorp they’re dealing with us, which costs us money in not knowing about new opportunities.” Bricklin knows the identity of his company and his products and does not hesitate to spell out where he sees himself. “We do innovative products,” he says, “And we stay with them. We have a lot to contribute, probably more than most other companies in the industry. Were we not around, I think the industry would be worse off. There are not that many other companies you can say that about.” |
Page added on 7th January 2005. |
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