Delrina was a Canadian software company founded in Toronto in 1988 and acquired
by the American software firm Symantec in 1995. Delrina's business strategy was
to "establish technical and market leadership in niche markets", which it
accomplished with its electronic form and PC-based fax software. Delrina's
electronic form products included PerForm and FormFlow, but it was best-known
for its WinFax software package. WinFax enabled computers equipped with
fax-modems to transmit faxes to standalone fax machines or other similarly
equipped computers. Delrina also produced a set of popular screensavers,
including one that resulted in a well-publicized lawsuit for copyright and
trademark infringement (Berkeley Systems Inc. v. Delrina). The case set a
precedent in American law whereby satiric commercial software products are not
subject to the same First Amendment exemptions as parodic cartoons or
literature.
The firm grew steadily over the course of the early 1990s, with revenues from
WinFax amounting to 80% of the company's revenues. It attempted to diversify
into other areas such with online communications software with its WinComm
product and produced a Web browser called Cyberjack that ultimately could not
compete effectively in the emerging browser wars. The firm was sold to Symantec
in 1995. After the company was acquired by Symantec, various divisions were sold
off and several of Delrina's former executives went on to found venture capital
firms.
Delrina was founded in Toronto in 1988 by Zimbabwean expatriate Bert Amato,
South African expatriates Mark Skapinker and Dennis Bennie along with American
Lou Ryan. A year before the firm was incorporated, Amato and Skapinker had quit
their jobs to start work on an electronic forms product which would eventually
become PerForm. Both would latter meet with Bennie, who was then the Chief
Executive Officer of Carolian Systems International, a firm that made business
software for Hewlett-Packard. He arranged for an initial seed investment of $1.5
million CAD to create a new start-up company to develop this idea, which was
called "Delrina". In return, Carolian received 51% of Delrina's shares.
Delrina's initial corporate headquarters was located at 1945 Leslie Street in
Toronto. A sales office was initially set up in Buffalo, but was soon moved to
San Jose which became its worldwide sales center run by co-founder Lou Ryan.
From its Toronto headquarters, the company expanded by establishing branch
offices in Kirkland, Washington; Washington, DC; and Lexington, Massachusetts.
Other offices were later established in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany.
Acquisition by Symantec and aftermath
In late Spring 1995 Delrina Chairman Dennis Bennie met with Symantec CEO Gordon
Eubanks to discuss the possibility of merging the two firms. In September 1995
Delrina's founders—who owned a controlling interest in the firm—sold the firm to
Symantec in a stock deal worth $415 million US. The deal was first announced in
July 6 of that year, with shareholders from both firms approving the merger on
November 20. The merger was completed on November 22, 1995 and Delrina
officially became part of Symantec. The deal made the merged company the fifth
largest American software firm at the time. The firm became the "Delrina Group"
within Symantec, which brought under its control other communication software
products that belonged to the parent firm, such as pcAnywhere.
At its height the company employed more than 700 people worldwide, the majority
based in Canada. Symantec was following a general trend of large American firms
buying smaller Canadian software companies. Other contemporaneous examples
included: Softimage and Zoom-it bought by Microsoft, and Alias bought by Silicon
Graphics.
Both Dennis Bennie and Bert Amato resigned their positions at Delrina just under
a year later in May 1996, the former also resigning from Symantec's board of
directors at that time.
Parts of the company were subsequently sold off, such as the sale of Delrina's
Electronic Forms Division to JetForm in September 1996. JetForm, which later
changed its name to Accelio, was in turn bought by Adobe Systems. Adobe
officially discontinued the electronic forms products in 2004. Creative Wonders
bought the rights to the Echo Lake multimedia product, which was re-shaped as an
introductory program on multimedia and re-released as Family Album Creator.
Though the market for fax software would shrink significantly as the use of
email became more pervasive, WinFax brought in significant revenue for Symantec;
a year after the merger sales of fax software accounted for 10% of Symantec's
revenues.
List of Delrina products
by the American software firm Symantec in 1995. Delrina's business strategy was
to "establish technical and market leadership in niche markets", which it
accomplished with its electronic form and PC-based fax software. Delrina's
electronic form products included PerForm and FormFlow, but it was best-known
for its WinFax software package. WinFax enabled computers equipped with
fax-modems to transmit faxes to standalone fax machines or other similarly
equipped computers. Delrina also produced a set of popular screensavers,
including one that resulted in a well-publicized lawsuit for copyright and
trademark infringement (Berkeley Systems Inc. v. Delrina). The case set a
precedent in American law whereby satiric commercial software products are not
subject to the same First Amendment exemptions as parodic cartoons or
literature.
The firm grew steadily over the course of the early 1990s, with revenues from
WinFax amounting to 80% of the company's revenues. It attempted to diversify
into other areas such with online communications software with its WinComm
product and produced a Web browser called Cyberjack that ultimately could not
compete effectively in the emerging browser wars. The firm was sold to Symantec
in 1995. After the company was acquired by Symantec, various divisions were sold
off and several of Delrina's former executives went on to found venture capital
firms.
Delrina was founded in Toronto in 1988 by Zimbabwean expatriate Bert Amato,
South African expatriates Mark Skapinker and Dennis Bennie along with American
Lou Ryan. A year before the firm was incorporated, Amato and Skapinker had quit
their jobs to start work on an electronic forms product which would eventually
become PerForm. Both would latter meet with Bennie, who was then the Chief
Executive Officer of Carolian Systems International, a firm that made business
software for Hewlett-Packard. He arranged for an initial seed investment of $1.5
million CAD to create a new start-up company to develop this idea, which was
called "Delrina". In return, Carolian received 51% of Delrina's shares.
Delrina's initial corporate headquarters was located at 1945 Leslie Street in
Toronto. A sales office was initially set up in Buffalo, but was soon moved to
San Jose which became its worldwide sales center run by co-founder Lou Ryan.
From its Toronto headquarters, the company expanded by establishing branch
offices in Kirkland, Washington; Washington, DC; and Lexington, Massachusetts.
Other offices were later established in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany.
Acquisition by Symantec and aftermath
In late Spring 1995 Delrina Chairman Dennis Bennie met with Symantec CEO Gordon
Eubanks to discuss the possibility of merging the two firms. In September 1995
Delrina's founders—who owned a controlling interest in the firm—sold the firm to
Symantec in a stock deal worth $415 million US. The deal was first announced in
July 6 of that year, with shareholders from both firms approving the merger on
November 20. The merger was completed on November 22, 1995 and Delrina
officially became part of Symantec. The deal made the merged company the fifth
largest American software firm at the time. The firm became the "Delrina Group"
within Symantec, which brought under its control other communication software
products that belonged to the parent firm, such as pcAnywhere.
At its height the company employed more than 700 people worldwide, the majority
based in Canada. Symantec was following a general trend of large American firms
buying smaller Canadian software companies. Other contemporaneous examples
included: Softimage and Zoom-it bought by Microsoft, and Alias bought by Silicon
Graphics.
Both Dennis Bennie and Bert Amato resigned their positions at Delrina just under
a year later in May 1996, the former also resigning from Symantec's board of
directors at that time.
Parts of the company were subsequently sold off, such as the sale of Delrina's
Electronic Forms Division to JetForm in September 1996. JetForm, which later
changed its name to Accelio, was in turn bought by Adobe Systems. Adobe
officially discontinued the electronic forms products in 2004. Creative Wonders
bought the rights to the Echo Lake multimedia product, which was re-shaped as an
introductory program on multimedia and re-released as Family Album Creator.
Though the market for fax software would shrink significantly as the use of
email became more pervasive, WinFax brought in significant revenue for Symantec;
a year after the merger sales of fax software accounted for 10% of Symantec's
revenues.
List of Delrina products
Electronic Forms Products
Delrina PerForm – October 1988
Delrina PerForm PRO – August 1990
Delrina PerForm Tracer - June 1991
Delrina PerForm PRO Plus - August 1992
Delrina FormFlow - October 1993
Delrina FormFlow 1.1 – June 1994
PerForm for Windows 3.0 – November 1994
Multimedia Products
The Far Side Daily Planner and Calendar Publisher 3.0 - September 1991
Delrina Intermission 4.0 Screen Saver - November 1990
Bill 'n' Opus ScreenSaver – November 1993
Opus 'n Bill On The Road Again Screensaver – September 1994
The Scott Adams Dilbert Screen Saver Collection – September 1994
Echo Lake – June 1995
Fax-related Products (released by Delrina)
WinFax 1.0 – December 1990
WinFax PRO 2.0 – June 1991
WinFax Lite - April 1992
DosFax Lite - April 1992
DosFax PRO 2.0 – June 1992
WinFax PRO 3.0 – November 1992
Delrina Fax PRO 1.5 for Macintosh – September 1993
WinFax PRO for Networks - November 1993
WinFax PRO 4.0 – March 1994
WinFax Scanner – 1994
WinFax PRO 7.0 – November 1995
Fax-related Products (released by Symantec)
WinFax PRO 7.5 (bundled with TalkWorks) – October 1996
WinFax PRO 8.0 (bundled with TalkWorks PRO) – March 1997
TalkWorks PRO 2.0 – August 1998
WinFax PRO 9.0 – August 1998
TalkWorks PRO 3.0 – August 1999
WinFax PRO 10.0 – February 2000
Online Communications Products
Delrina Communications Suite (WinComm and WinFax) – March 1993
WinComm (Standalone) – March 1994
Cyberjack – December 1995
CommSuite95 – December 1995
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