Word: visicalc
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...hangs out with his pals in a Market Street computer store, often plotting some new electronic scam. Barry (not his real name) currently boasts an illicit library of about 1,000 pirated (i.e., illegally copied) programs worth about $50,000 at retail prices, including such software gems as VisiCalc, the popular business management and planning program. Before security was tightened up, he regularly plugged his computer into such distant databanks as The Source (which provides news bulletins, stock prices, etc.) via telephone without paying a cent...
...company's main product is VisiCalc, a program for small computers that helps small-and medium-size businesses in planning and budgeting. Fylstra did not develop VisiCalc. That was done by Daniel Bricklin and Robert Frankston, software designers and M.I.T. alumni. But Fylstra was the one who began marketing it, and turned VisiCalc into the most popular small computer program. So far, some 200,000 copies (price: $250) have been sold. Expected sales for VisiCalc and the company's other software programs this year: $35 million...
Fylstra, who last week changed the name of his firm to VisiCorp, is at one of the many turning points for an entrepreneur. The company faces stiff competition from VisiCalc's many upstart imitators, among them makers of computer hardware who are selling more and more of their own software. Industry analysts see VisiCorp as a likely candidate for going public during the next two years. With appraisals of the company's worth running about $125 million, a public stock offering would make Fylstra an even wealthier young man. That would free him to strike out in another...
While big-league computer crooks are a problem for banks and major corporations, another small-time level of thievery is also growing. VisiCalc, a computer program that is widely used by small-and medium-size firms for making budgets and other company planning, is the best-selling program for personal computers. In addition to the sales, however, thousands of people are copying the program, which retails for $250, onto blank diskettes that cost only about $4. For every authentic version of VisiCalc, there are an estimated 1½ illegal, copied ones. Said Daniel Fylstra, chairman of VisiCorp, which developed VisiCalc...
...firm with $500 three years ago, saw sales rise to $4 million last year and expected his gross to triple this year. Now he believes that sales will be "substantially more" than that. The company's first product was the game program Microchess, but its bestseller is VisiCalc, a $200 program used by businessmen to make financial forecasts. Total sales of it to date: 150,000 copies...