Atex (software)

Last updated

Atex is a company specializing in the development of advertising, editorial and web content management systems. The company was established in Massachusetts in 1973 and grew to become a worldwide hardware and software supplier to the publishing industry. It participated in much of the change in the print industry involving the move from hot-metal through photo and then laser typesetting, culminating in computer to plate (CTP). The company expanded to include web publishing as an integral part of its product line.

Contents

The company claims to have over US$1 billion worth of software installed worldwide[ citation needed ], and claims more than 1000 customers in 55 countries[ citation needed ]. The company is based in UK, with an international leadership group that distributed through Italy, United Kingdom and Australia and is backed by Canadian investment company Constellation Software . It employs over 120 people globally. [1]

History

1970s

Atex was founded in Massachusetts in 1973 by Douglas Drane and Charles and Richard Ying, graduates of MIT, who had an idea for a new type of electronic composition system. By 1974 they had created a prototype video display terminal, encased in a cardboard whiskey carton. The weekly news magazine U.S. News & World Report was their first customer and an early investor. [2]

By 1977, Atex had successfully connected reporters and editors via a paper-free system that allowed working on-screen instead of on typewriters. The system had a terminal-and-server paradigm, using modified DEC PDP-11 minicomputer hardware running a custom Atex multi-user operating system. Terminals were little more than keyboards, with the servers directly generating video signals for each terminal. The memory-mapped screen images were monochrome and not high resolution, but they could scroll quickly and fluidly without the constraints imposed by conventional serial data connections, which at the time were not very fast. The servers were paired for redundancy; each story saved to disk was written to two separate systems. The systems talked to each other across a high speed intersystem bus, making a set of up to 15 servers seem to their users to be one big system. A built-in messaging system provided email-like functionality among system users, greatly aiding collaboration. Wire stories were funneled into the system electronically rather than having to be re-keyboarded from teletype printouts. The workflow advantages of the system proved popular with staff and management of newspapers and large magazine publishers[ citation needed ]. The proprietary keyboards included a number of innovations which greatly facilitated text entry and editing.

The system's early adopters in the daily newspaper industry included Newsday, The Hartford Courant, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Much of the growth can be traced to a series of patents Atex received in 1976 for its text editing and display system.

1980s

In 1980 Atex developed a news pagination system for the Star Tribune. The resulting product, Atex News Layout, delivered ‘parallel pagination’, which allowed layout changes to automatically flow between copy editors and layout editors.

An April 1981 story in Computerworld magazine announced a new ATEX "System 7000" suitable for "medium-sized daily newspapers" and supporting up to 64 news and advertising terminals, with dual central processing units and system prices starting at $250,000. [3]

Many of America's major dailies adopted Atex systems at some point, including The New York Times, Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer, Chicago Daily News, Louisville Courier-Journal, Columbus Dispatch, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Indianapolis Star, and Seattle Times. [4] The Associated Press also used Atex to create and edit stories and to send them to its members over telephone circuits and via satellite.

The company was eventually acquired by Eastman Kodak for $77 million. [2] Kodak thought Atex would help them access the commercial industry and build a strong customer based in emerging computer based technology.

In 1979 Atex for the first time expanded its operations outside the United States with implementation at the West Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ), which was headquartered in Essen Germany and which had five different titles throughout the North Rhine-Westphalia Region. Early in 1980 Atex quickly expanded its operation in Germany with Axel Springer Verlag Hoerzu, Bild Zeitung, Abendblatt, and Die Welt. This was the official release of the Integrated Advertising System, which introduced another major milestone and revolutionized newspaper advertising deadlines.

In the early-1980s Atex for the first time expanded its operations outside the United States with an implementation at The Economist and Maclean's Magazine in Toronto, La Tribune de Geneve in Geneva, La Suisse in Geneva, Le Nouvel Economiste in Brussels. In June 1980 Atex signed a contract with The Age, in Melbourne Australia, for a 320 terminal classified advertising system – at that time the largest advertising system in the world. This was followed in 1982 by a full editorial system.This was followed by major installation at Rupert Murdoch’s News International in 1985 and a $23 million contract with The New York Times in 1987.

Paul Brainerd left Atex in 1984 to found the Aldus Corporation and lead the creation of PageMaker.

1990s

After nearly two decades of continuous growth, which included the construction of a 1,500 person manufacturing plant in the United States, Atex ran into difficult times at the beginning of the 1990s. Citing the need to refocus on its core business, Kodak sold the technology company [5] to a group of European investors in 1992. Those investors started the development of Enterprise and Prestige, which were formerly the core of the Atex product portfolio.

The company's investors sought fresh investment in 1995, leading to a takeover by Sysdeco Group AS of Norway. [6]

Sysdeco Group bought Atex and a Finnish supplier of editorial and classified systems, and became known as Sysdeco Media. The two acquisitions were not successful and in 1995 Atex was spun off again, becoming Atex Media Solutions, [7] retaining its largest shareholder, Norwegian based Kistefos AS.

2000s

Starting in 2002 when it merged with Media Command, Atex made a series of acquisitions.

With a new Group CEO, John Hawkins, Atex acquired, in 2006, the media business of Unisys Corporation and then in early 2007, Mactive, an advertising systems developer, which increased the US market share[ citation needed ]. In 2007 Atex also purchased Vogsys, a publishing technology company based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

In 2008 the company acquired Swedish Java based Web CMS developer, Polopoly [8] which added a digital platform. In 2010 Atex purchased the online classified platform Kaango. [9]

In 2011, the company headquarters were moved to Castle Street in Reading, England, and Jim Rose was appointed as Group CEO. In June 2012, Rose left Atex after a seven-year career with the company, and Gary Stokes was appointed as Group CEO.

Constellation acquisition

In mid-2017 the company has been acquired by Constellation Software, a Canadian diversified software company that has acquired over 500 businesses since being founded.

Shortly after the acquisition, the new ownership appointed Federico Marturano (previously general manager of the Italian subsidiary) to group CEO.

In 2018 Atex acquired from the Finnish IT group, TietoEVRY, the Cross Advertising product.

Products

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inktomi</span> Former software company based in California

Inktomi Corporation was an American Internet service provider (ISP) software developer based in Foster City, California. Customers included Microsoft, HotBot, Amazon.com, eBay, and Walmart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Novell</span> 1980–2014 American multinational software and services company

Novell, Inc. was an American software and services company headquartered in Provo, Utah, that existed from 1980 until 2014. Its most significant product was the multi-platform network operating system known as Novell NetWare. Novell technology contributed to the emergence of local area networks, which displaced the dominant mainframe computing model and changed computing worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quark (company)</span> American software company

Quark Software Inc. is a privately owned software company which specializes in enterprise publishing software for automating the production of customer communications. The company's original goal was to "create software that would be the platform for publishing", just as quarks are the basis for all matter.

Internet Security Systems, Inc., often known simply as ISS or ISSX, was a provider of security software and managed security services. It provided software and services for computers, servers, networks, and remote locations that involve preemptive security against threats before they affect a business. Founded in 1994, the company was acquired by IBM in 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SCO Group</span> Defunct American software company

The SCO Group was an American software company in existence from 2002 to 2012 that became known for owning Unix operating system assets that had belonged to the Santa Cruz Operation, including the UnixWare and OpenServer technologies, and then, under CEO Darl McBride, pursuing a series of high-profile legal battles known as the SCO–Linux controversies.

J.D. Edwards World Solution Company or JD Edwards, abbreviated JDE, was an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software company, whose namesake ERP system is still sold under ownership by Oracle Corporation. JDE's products included World for IBM AS/400 minicomputers, OneWorld for their proprietary Configurable Network Computing architecture, and JD Edwards EnterpriseOne. The company was founded March 1977 in Denver, by Jack Thompson, C.T.P. "Chuck" Hintze, Dan Gregory, and C. Edward "Ed" McVaney.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Citrix Systems</span> American software company

Citrix Systems, Inc. is an American multinational cloud computing and virtualization technology company that provides server, application and desktop virtualization, networking, software as a service (SaaS), and cloud computing technologies. Citrix claims that their products are used by over 400,000 clients worldwide, including 99% of the Fortune 100 and 98% of the Fortune 500.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gen Digital</span> Multinational software company

Gen Digital Inc. is a multinational software company co-headquartered in Tempe, Arizona and Prague, Czech Republic. The company provides cybersecurity software and services. Gen is a Fortune 500 company and a member of the S&P 500 stock-market index. The company also has development centers in Pune, Chennai and Bangalore. Its portfolio includes Norton, Avast, LifeLock, Avira, AVG, ReputationDefender, and CCleaner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CA Technologies</span> American software company (1976–2018)

CA Technologies, Inc., formerly Computer Associates International, Inc., and CA, Inc., was an American multinational enterprise software developer and publisher that existed from 1976 to 2018. CA grew to rank as one of the largest independent software corporations in the world, and at one point was the second largest. The company created systems software that ran in IBM mainframe, distributed computing, virtual machine, and cloud computing environments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OpenText</span> Canadian software company

OpenText Corporation is a Canadian Information company that develops and sells enterprise information management (EIM) software.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Data Group</span> Publishing company

International Data Group is a market intelligence and demand generation company focused on the technology industry. IDG, Inc.'s mission is centered around supporting the technology industry through research, data, marketing technology, and insights that help create and sustain relationships between businesses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stratus Technologies</span> American computer manufacturer

Stratus Technologies, Inc. is a major producer of fault tolerant computer servers and software. The company was founded in 1980 as Stratus Computer, Inc. in Natick, Massachusetts, and adopted its present name in 1999. The current CEO and president is Dave Laurello. The founder of Stratus was Bill Foster. He served as CEO until Stratus was acquired by Ascend Communications in 1999. Prior to 2022, Stratus Technologies, Inc. was a privately held company, owned solely by Siris Capital Group. The parent company, Stratus Technologies Bermuda Holdings, Ltd., was incorporated in Bermuda. In 2022, the company was acquired by Smart Global Holdings (SGH) and currently operates within SGH's Intelligent Platform Solutions (IPS) business.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Radvision</span> Israeli telecommunication company

Radvision was a provider of video conferencing solution and enabling products for IP communication developers based in Tel Aviv, Israel. Radvision was acquired by Avaya in June 2012. Spirent Communications acquired Radvision's Technology Business Unit from Avaya in July 2014, to become Spirent Developer Tools Business Unit.

XML Professional Publisher (XPP) is an automated XML based publishing system that was developed out of a proprietary typesetting system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vignette Corporation</span>

Vignette Corporation was a company that offered a suite of content management, web portal, collaboration, document management, and records management software. Targeted at the enterprise market, Vignette offered products under the name StoryServer that allowed non-technical users to create, edit and track content through workflows and publish it on the web. It provided integration for enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management and legacy systems, supporting Java EE and Microsoft.NET. Vignette's integrated development environment and application programming interface offered an alternative to conventional Common Gateway Interface/vi/Perl web development. StoryServer was used on many large websites including those of CNET, UnitedHealth Group, The Walt Disney Company, Wachovia, Martha Stewart, Fox News, National Geographic Channel, Pharmacia & Upjohn, MetLife, BSkyB, the 2004 Summer Olympics, and NASA.

Page Interchange Language also known as Publishing Interchange Language, or "PIL" is a public domain language that allows precise description of the layout of content on pages, groups of multiple pages or any 2-dimensional area, which it calls a "canvas." It was developed between June 1990 and June 1991 by the Professional Publishers Interchange Specification Workgroup, a committee of software and hardware vendors serving the newspaper, magazine and print advertising markets. The committee was led by Quark and Atex.

TechnologyOne Limited is an Australian enterprise software company founded in 1987. The company is headquartered in Fortitude Valley in Brisbane, Australia, with other offices in United Kingdom, New Zealand, South Pacific and Asia. It is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Altos Computer Systems</span> Unix manufacturer

Altos Computer Systems was founded in 1977 by David G. Jackson and Roger William Vass Sr. It focused on small multi-user computers, starting with multi-user derivatives of CP/M, and later including Unix and Xenix-based machines. In its 1982 initial public offering on NASDAQ, the company raised $59M. Thereafter the company's stock was traded under the symbol ALTO.

Perforce Software, Inc. is an American developer of software used for developing and running applications, including version control software, web-based repository management, developer collaboration, application lifecycle management, web application servers, debugging tools, platform automation, and agile planning software.

Veritas Technologies LLC is an American international data management company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. The company has its origins in Tolerant Systems, founded in 1983 and later renamed Veritas Software. It specializes in storage management software including the first commercial journaling file system, VxFS, VxVM, VCS, the personal/small office backup software Backup Exec and the enterprise backup software, NetBackup. Veritas Record Now was an early CD recording software.

References

  1. ↑ "Atex - About". atex.com. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
  2. 1 2 The Cole Group. "The Cole Papers, Atex, January 2001". colepapers.net. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
  3. ↑ "Atex Newspaper System Suits Medium-Size Papers". Computerworld . Vol. XV, no. 16. 20 April 1981. p. 65.
  4. ↑ http://enc.slider.com/Enc/Atex%5B‍%5D
  5. ↑ "Reading Eagle - Google News Archive Search". google.com. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
  6. ↑ Grande, Judy. "Sysdeco Acquires Two U.S. Vendors". naa.org. Newspaper Association of America. Archived from the original on 2010-08-01.
  7. ↑ Rosenberg, Jim (8 March 1997). "Systems Vendors' New Year's Changes". Editor & Publisher. pp. 28, 30, 32–35. Retrieved 2 July 2024.
  8. ↑ "Atex - News". atex.com. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
  9. ↑ "Atex - News". atex.com. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.