Quarterdeck Office Systems

{{More citations needed|date=February 2010}}

{{Infobox company

| name = Quarterdeck Office Systems

| logo = Quarterdeck Corporation logo.svg

| fate = Acquired by Symantec

| successor = Symantec

| foundation = {{Start date and age|1981}}

| founder = Therese Myers, Gary Pope

| defunct = 1998

| location = Marina del Rey, California,
United States

| industry =

| key_people =

| products = Quarterdeck Expanded Memory Manager, DESQview, DESQview/X

| num_employees =

| parent =

| subsid =

}}

Quarterdeck Office Systems, later Quarterdeck Corporation (NASDAQ: QDEK), was an American computer software company. It was founded by Therese Myers{{cite web|url=http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/rvp/pubaf/chronicle/v5/O3/new.html |title=Board Of Trustees Elects New Members |website=Bc.edu |access-date=2016-06-25}}{{cite web|url=http://www.infratab.com/infratab/team.html |title=Infratab™ |access-date=February 23, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100228081002/http://www.infratab.com/infratab/team.html |archive-date=February 28, 2010 }} and Gary Pope in 1981{{Cite journal

| last1 = Larson | first1 = Jennifer

| title = Quarterdeck Is Changing The Office Environment

| journal = General Computing

| volume = 4

| issue = 8

| year = 1993

| url = http://www.smartcomputing.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles%2F1993%2Faug93%2F93n0803.asp

}}

and incorporated in 1982. Their offices were initially located at 150 Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica, California and later at 13160 Mindanao Way in Marina del Rey, California, as well as a sales and technical support unit located in Clearwater, Florida. In the 1990s, they had a European office in Dublin, Ireland. Their most famous products were the Quarterdeck Expanded Memory Manager, DESQview, CleanSweep, DESQview/X, Quarterdeck Mosaic, Manifest and Partition-It.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wVDB2C8IJRYC&q=%22partition+It%22+quarterdeck&pg=PA66 |title=PC Mag |page=66 |date= 25 March 1997|access-date=2016-06-25}}

On April 18, 1989, Quarterdeck was awarded a US software patent that allowed multiple windowed PC applications under MS-DOS.{{cite news|author=Special to the New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/19/business/patent-is-won-by-quarterdeck.html?pagewanted=1 |title=Patent Is Won By Quarterdeck |website=The New York Times |date=1989-04-19 |access-date=2016-06-25}}

After sales and its stock plummeted in 1995, interim CEO King R. Lee hired Gaston Bastiaens as CEO. In order to diversify the company's product offerings, Bastiaens began an ultimately unsuccessful acquisition spree.{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-09-15-fi-46262-story.html|title=Internet Hype Gives New Life to Quarterdeck Stock|first=TOM|last=PETRUNO|date=15 September 1995|access-date=25 June 2016|via=LA Times}}{{cite web|url=https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/707668/0000950148-96-001905.txt |title=Archived copy |access-date=August 21, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160422131141/http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/707668/0000950148-96-001905.txt |archive-date=April 22, 2016 }}{{cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB844737546821329500|title=Quarterdeck Expects Charge For Quarter, Loss for Year|first=A. Wall Street Journal Staff|last=Reporter|date=8 October 1996|access-date=25 June 2016|newspaper=Wall Street Journal}}

In 1995, the company acquired Landmark Research International Corp. for 3.5 million shares of Quarterdeck (acquiring MagnaRAM and WinProbe)PR Newswire, June 30, 1995. "Quarterdeck Acquires Landmark Research International" and then Inset Systems, Inc. of Brookfield, Connecticut in September of that year for 933,000 shares of Quarterdeck (acquiring HiJaak graphics software in the deal).PR Newswire, September 06, 1995. "Quarterdeck Signs Agreement to Acquire Inset Systems, Inc.; Inset Shipped This Week a Complete Graphic Utilities Solution for Windows 95".

In March 1996, Quarterdeck acquired Datastorm Technologies, Inc., publishers of PROCOMM and PROCOMM PLUS, and relocated its technical support and development operations from California and Florida, to Datastorm's Columbia, Missouri headquarters.{{cite web |url=https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/707668/0000950148-96-001071.txt |title=Archived copy |access-date=2017-09-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706000052/https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/707668/0000950148-96-001071.txt |archive-date=2017-07-06 }}

In July 1996, Quarterdeck acquired Vertisoft Systems, publishers of the DoubleDisk and Fix-It utilities, also for 3.5 million shares of Quarterdeck.{{cite web|url=https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/707668/0000950150-96-000748-index.html|title=EDGAR Filing Documents for 0000950150-96-000748|work=sec.gov|access-date=25 June 2016}} Both Landmark and Vertisoft had extensive revenues from direct-marketing of third party products through telemarketing and direct mail.{{cite web |url=https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/707668/0000944209-98-002115.txt |title=Archived copy |access-date=2017-09-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701090651/https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/707668/0000944209-98-002115.txt |archive-date=2017-07-01 }}

Bastiaens resigned in August 1996, and Quarterdeck continued under acting Co-CEOs King R. Lee, and Anatoly Tikhman, the former CEO of Vertisoft. The company announced a restructuring and a loss, and in January 1997, Quarterdeck hired Curtis Hessler to run the company.{{cite web|url=https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/707668/0000950148-96-002200.txt |title=Archived copy |access-date=August 21, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160422131307/http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/707668/0000950148-96-002200.txt |archive-date=April 22, 2016 }}

In 1998, with its DOS utilities market all but collapsed, Quarterdeck was acquired for $0.52 per share by Symantec (the Norton Utilities company), which discontinued support of some Quarterdeck products, e.g., Mosaic, and integrated others into larger offerings, e.g., CleanSweep, which became part of Norton SystemWorks.{{cite web|url=http://www.symantec.com/about/news/release/article.jsp?prid=19981117_04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607083316/http://www.symantec.com/about/news/release/article.jsp?prid=19981117_04|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 7, 2011|title=Newsroom - Symantec|work=Symantec|access-date=25 June 2016}}