Borland sees its future in Delphi
Article Abstract:
Borland International is staking its corporate survival on its new Delphi visual programming tool being launched in Feb 1995 amidst company financial problems ranging from layoffs to lawsuits. Delphi faces strong competition in a market already defined by three contenders: Powersoft's Powerbuilder, Gupta's SQL Windows and Microsoft's Visual Basic. However, Borland insists that Delphi is superior to these other products because it includes a compiler, which will produce applications ready to run without additional computer translation slowing down the execution time. However, some analysts say that Delphi's compiler may soon be replicated in the programming tools from Borland's rivals and that more features may be needed to keep Delphi in the running. The opposing firms are also financially more stable than Borland, which has not posted an operating profit since 1992, lost $22.9 million in the 3rd qtr ending in Jan 1995, recently replaced its CEO Phillipe Kahn and plans to lay off 40% of its employees.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1995
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Apple and I.B.M. end multimedia joint venture
Article Abstract:
Apple and IBM announce the closing of Kaleida Labs, a joint venture whose multimedia software programming tools failed to gain significant market share. Kaleida's primary product is Scriptex, a product designed to let multimedia applications run on different types of hardware. Scriptex received backing from large consumer electronics firms, but Kaleida failed to deliver the software on time, and multimedia products gained rapid market share without it, especially as developers created CD-ROMs that could run on both Windows and Macintosh platforms. Kaleida's former CEO Nate Goldhaber claims that the company's failure stemmed from IBM's and Apple's refusal to allow it to operate independently, which lowered employees' desire to complete products on time. Apple and IBM plan to continue to use Kaleida's projects, and Apple will make Scriptex into a programing language for the Internet, as well as maintaining its current form.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1995
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Borland gets court reprieve in Lotus copyright dispute
Article Abstract:
The Court of Appeals for the First Circuit has overturned a lower-court ruling in a copyright-infringement case involving Lotus and Borland. The court ruled that Borland's Quattro Pro spreadsheet package does not infringe on the copyright Lotus has for its 1-2-3 spreadsheet package. The ruling overturns a lower-court ruling made by the Federal District Court in Boston in Aug 1993, which might have required Borland to pay over $100 million in damages. The appeals-court ruling is good news for Borland, which is experiencing financial difficulties due to price wars and product delays. Court documents had indicated that Borland expected to only have approximately $47 million in cash by Jun 1995, and some analysts had predicted that the company would have to file for bankruptcy or be sold if the lower-court ruling had been upheld.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1995
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
- Abstracts: Microsoft and the question of monopoly; judge injects a note of skepticism into tenet of company's defense. Judge in Microsoft case tries to cut through jargon as he questions witnesses
- Abstracts: Sybase sees loss in quarter and plans layoffs of 600; software maker tries to regain ground. Anatomy of a highflying I.P.O., nosebleeds and all