Type | Incorporation |
---|---|
Industry | Software |
Founded | 1991 |
Defunct | October 14, 2004 |
Fate | Acquired by Corel |
Headquarters | |
Key people | Robert Voit (founder) |
Products | Paint Shop Pro, Animation Shop, Image Robot, Media Center Plus, Webdraw, After Shot |
Jasc Software, Inc. was an Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based company founded by Robert Voit, the creator of Paint Shop Pro, a popular graphics editing program. Jasc Software also created other popular software titles, including:
On October 14, 2004, Corel Corporation announced the acquisition of Jasc Software, Inc. at announcement day, with the acquisition expected to be closed by the end of October 2004. Under the acquisition, Corel would maintain the former Jasc facility in Minneapolis, Minnesota for the Paint Shop family operations. Amish Mehta would continue to serve as the Chief Executive Officer of Corel Corporation, and several members of the Jasc senior management team would join Corel. [1] [2] At the time of deal closure, Jasc Software, Inc. had 120 employees, with revenues of more than $30 million. [3]
On November 28, 2007, Corel announced the closure of the Minneapolis office. [4] This effectively put an end to the former Jasc Software establishment. While a few positions remained in the Minneapolis area, most operations were transferred to Corel's other offices.
"Jasc" is derived from the acronym J.A.S.C. (Just Another Software Company). [5] Founder Robert Voit needed a name to protect his assets legally, but at the time had not decided to make a go of the company so he came up with a tongue-in-cheek name. [5] Later when the company took off, he realized that was not the best connotation for a company to have so he publicly "changed" the acronym to "Jets and Software Company" because he was a commercial airline pilot prior to starting the software company. [6] [7]
Robert Voit (from St. Cloud, Minnesota) was the founder of Jasc Software. He has a computer science degree minoring in aviation, completed in 1983. He was initially employed as a DC-9 pilot and then later founded the Jasc software company, which in 1991 produced Paint Shop Pro. [3]
PaintShop Pro (PSP) is a raster and vector graphics editor for Microsoft Windows. It was originally published by Jasc Software. In October 2004, Corel purchased Jasc Software and the distribution rights to Paint Shop Pro. PSP functionality can be extended by Photoshop-compatible plugins.
Eden Prairie is a city 12 miles (19 km) southwest of downtown Minneapolis in Hennepin County and the 12th-largest city in the State of Minnesota, United States. Set in the outer suburbs of the Twin Cities, it is the seventh-largest suburb. It has a population of 60,797 at the 2010 census. The city is on the north bank of the Minnesota River, upstream from its confluence with the Mississippi River.
Corel Corporation is a Canadian software company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, specializing in graphics processing. It is known for producing software titles such as CorelDRAW, and for acquiring AfterShot Pro, PaintShop Pro, Painter, Video Studio and WordPerfect.
Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor and design program developed and marketed by Adobe Inc. Originally designed for the Apple Macintosh, development of Adobe Illustrator began in 1985. Along with Creative Cloud, Illustrator CC was released. The latest version, Illustrator 2022, was released on October 26, 2021, and is the 25th generation in the product line. Adobe Illustrator was reviewed as the best vector graphics editing program in 2018 by PC Magazine.
Mentor Graphics is a US-based electronic design automation (EDA) multinational corporation for electrical engineering and electronics, headquartered in Wilsonville, Oregon. Founded in 1981, the company was acquired by Siemens in 2017. Since 2021, the former Mentor Graphics operates as a division at Siemens named Siemens EDA.
Michael Cowpland is a British-born entrepreneur, businessman, and the founder and one-time president, chairman and CEO of Corel, a Canadian software company.
Corel Painter is a raster-based digital art application created to simulate as accurately as possible the appearance and behavior of traditional media associated with drawing, painting, and printmaking. It is intended to be used in real-time by professional digital artists as a functional creative tool.
Corel Photo-Paint is a raster graphics editor developed and marketed by Corel since 1992. Corel markets the software for Windows and Mac OS operating systems, previously having marketed versions for Linux. Its primary market competitor is Adobe Photoshop.
Ulead Systems is a Taiwanese computer software company headquartered in Neihu district in Taipei, Taiwan. It is a subsidiary of Corel.
Roxio is an American software company specializing in developing consumer digital media products. Its product line includes tools for setting up digital media projects, media conversion software and content distribution systems. The company formed as a spin-off of Adaptec's software division in 2001 and acquired MGI Software in 2002.
Ulead PhotoImpact is a raster and vector graphics editing program published by Ulead Systems.
MetaCreations was a computer software company that was best known for its graphics applications, notably Ray Dream Studio/Infini D, Fractal Design Painter, Bryce, and Kai's Power Tools.
Lund Food Holdings, Inc is an American supermarket operator. Headquartered in Edina, it owns the upscale supermarket chain Lunds & Byerlys. The company opened its first supermarkets in the Uptown area of Minneapolis. In 2015, it changed its name from Lunds to Lunds & Byerlys. It operates 28 stores in Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area of Minnesota.
Lifetouch Inc. is an American-based photography company headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, with its Canadian operations based in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Micrografx was a United States-based software-house most notable for its graphics products. It was founded in 1982 by Paul and George Grayson and was a pioneer for graphics products for Windows.
The Valspar Corporation is an American manufacturer of paint and coatings based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. With over 11,000 employees in 25 countries and a company history that spans two centuries, it was the sixth largest paint and coating corporation in the world. Valspar was founded in 1806 as a paint dealership in Boston, Massachusetts. The Valspar name emerged in 1903 as the name of a clear varnish and became the company name in 1932.
CorelDRAW is a vector graphics editor developed and marketed by Corel Corporation. It is also the name of the Corel graphics suite, which includes the bitmap-image editor Corel Photo-Paint as well as other graphics-related programs. The latest version is marketed as CorelDraw Graphics Suite 2021, and was released in March, 2021. CorelDraw is designed to edit two-dimensional images such as logos and posters and it is available for Windows and macOS.
The Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (HPE) is an American multinational enterprise information technology company based in Houston, Texas, United States.
Tyler Technologies, Inc., based in Plano, Texas, is a provider of software to the United States public sector. Tyler Technologies has offices in 17 states and one in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.