furuta@BRILLIG.UMD.EDU (Richard Furuta) (07/20/87)
I believe this message (originally to scribe-hacks) may be of interest to the laser-lovers list as well. Unilogic is the company that has handled Scribe as a commercial product. --Rick From: reid@decwrl.dec.com (Brian Reid) Date: 19 Jul 1987 1131-PDT (Sunday) Last week I heard a rumor that Unilogic had been acquired by some comapny called Accent Systems. Here is the only information I've been able to dig up about it. This is a very reliable source. -------------------------------------------------------------- ------Begin forwarded message What I know about this is based on a couple of quickly-scanned articles in the local business press (which unfortunately I didn't save) plus assorted rumors that have come drifiting by. When Perq Systems went under, several pieces lived on. The Lisp group, such as it was, became the nucleus of Expert Technologies. Some of the software group lived on as Connor-Scelza Associates. Kelly Hickel, the president of Perq at the time of the demise, took a few of the refugees and formed Accent Systems. I believe that their plan was to continue providing technical support for a couple of big Perq customers in printing and publishing, including a company (Atex, I think) that had obtained a license to continue manufacturing Perqs. (unsubstantiated rumors edited out here) ... ended up selling Unilogic to Accent Systems. Pittsburgh Business Times mumbled something about the price not being disclosed, but that it was in the "mid-seven figures", whatever that means. At about the same time, Accent Systems got acquired by some conglomerate-builder out of New York -- a guy who made his initial money in some low-tech field like oil. (Sorry, I can't retrieve the name...) I don't know if Hickel is still involved or not. There are rumors in the press that this guy might also buy some or all of what is left of Lexeme. Supposedly CMU has received assurances that the new owner will continue to maintain Scribe, but the more cynical folks around here tend not to believe that the service will be very good (not that it was great before). So the drift to Tex and/or Latex is accelerating. I'll probably make the move myself, next time I write something big. ------- End of Forwardeoreg97 ni3