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Cyhist Apr 2 1997 A
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Date: Wed, 2 Apr 1997 09:51:45 -0500
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: Leslie Pearson <lespea@MUZE.COM>
Subject: CM> The Rise and Fall of Wang
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Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
Laurence I. Press" <lpress@ISI.EDU> wrote:
>Lotus 1-2-3, which provided the resource that harried middle managers needed to break the accounting department monopoly on computing, and which home owners also found useful.
Word processing too -- the general purpose PC drove out the spcial purpose WP machine.
I had the misfortune of working for Wang from 1985 to 1989 when the tide turned against them. I was in the VM operating system group at the time.
In 1985 Wang was growing and had lots of amenities: 3 10 story office towers at the intersection of Rts 3 and 495 in Lowell, MA (nice tax break for building them), a country club, a bank and Burger King right in the company and even a private executive dinning room. Later, they built a nice training center in downtown Lowell, right next to a nice new hotel (another nice tax break).
By 1987 they had to offer employees a deferred stock compensation plan in return for a wage cut of 5%(? - memory is fuzzy on this now).
In 1989, I was laid off. Since 1989, Wang has gotten out of the hardware business and moved out of the towers to nearby Chelmsford (I don't know what happened to the towers). They also entered bankruptcy in 1992 and exited it around 1995.
One reason people claimed Wang failed was that Dr. Wang turned the company over to his son (I forgot his name) who has the Computer Science degree but not the business sense. I think they also missed the boat on the PC's rise, replacing their Word Processing Systems.
I have in my possession an autographed copy of Dr. Wang's autobiography. I bought it in the company store, and on my parents' suggestion sent it to him via inter company mail to autograph it, which he did!
Leslie Pearson
lespea@muze.com
______________________________________________________________________
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: Leslie Pearson <lespea@MUZE.COM>
Subject: CM> The Rise and Fall of Wang
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
Laurence I. Press" <lpress@ISI.EDU> wrote:
>Lotus 1-2-3, which provided the resource that harried middle managers needed to break the accounting department monopoly on computing, and which home owners also found useful.
Word processing too -- the general purpose PC drove out the spcial purpose WP machine.
I had the misfortune of working for Wang from 1985 to 1989 when the tide turned against them. I was in the VM operating system group at the time.
In 1985 Wang was growing and had lots of amenities: 3 10 story office towers at the intersection of Rts 3 and 495 in Lowell, MA (nice tax break for building them), a country club, a bank and Burger King right in the company and even a private executive dinning room. Later, they built a nice training center in downtown Lowell, right next to a nice new hotel (another nice tax break).
By 1987 they had to offer employees a deferred stock compensation plan in return for a wage cut of 5%(? - memory is fuzzy on this now).
In 1989, I was laid off. Since 1989, Wang has gotten out of the hardware business and moved out of the towers to nearby Chelmsford (I don't know what happened to the towers). They also entered bankruptcy in 1992 and exited it around 1995.
One reason people claimed Wang failed was that Dr. Wang turned the company over to his son (I forgot his name) who has the Computer Science degree but not the business sense. I think they also missed the boat on the PC's rise, replacing their Word Processing Systems.
I have in my possession an autographed copy of Dr. Wang's autobiography. I bought it in the company store, and on my parents' suggestion sent it to him via inter company mail to autograph it, which he did!
Leslie Pearson
lespea@muze.com
______________________________________________________________________
