Star Division
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2019|cs1-dates=y}}
{{Use list-defined references|date=December 2021}}
{{short description|German software company}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Star Division
| logo = Star-Division-logo.svg
| type = {{lang|de|Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung}}
| industry = Computer software
| defunct = {{End date and age|2000|08|05}}
| fate = Acquired by Sun Microsystems
| founded = {{Start date and age|1985}} in Lüneburg, Germany
| founder = Marco Börries
| hq_location_city = Hamburg
| hq_location_country = Germany
| key_people =
| products = StarOffice
| num_employees = 170
| num_employees_year = 1997
| revenue =
| homepage =
}}
Star Division (also written as Star-Division) was a German software company best known for developing the now discontinued StarOffice suite. It was founded in 1985 by 16-year-old Marco Börries in Lüneburg as a garage company. After a neighbour denounced the operation of a business in a residential area to the Ordnungsamt, the company moved to Hamburg.
As its first product the company distributed StarWriter, a word processor application developed by friends.
Positioned as a cheaper alternative to Microsoft Office, StarWriter later became StarOffice, for which the company became famous. The software had sales of over 25 million worldwide, and at its peak it had a market share among other office suites of about 25% in Germany.
Caldera, Inc. supported the Linux port of StarOffice 3.1 with ca. 800.000 DM in order to offer the product with their forthcoming OpenLinux distribution in 1997.
In 1998 Börries released StarOffice free of charge for private use.
Star Division was acquired by the software and hardware vendor Sun Microsystems on 5 August 1999 for a higher double-digit million amount in US dollars. Sun reintroduced the software as StarOffice 5.1a, and for the first time also free of charge for commercial use.
The StarOffice suite has since been further improved by Sun Microsystems and the OpenOffice and LibreOffice communities.
Sun Microsystems became a wholly owned subsidiary of Oracle Corporation on 27 January 2010.
Notes
{{Reflist|group="nb"|refs=
Star-Division-Gründer Marco Börries verlässt Sun Microsystems (2001-01-18) [http://www.chip.de/news/Star-Division-Gruender-Marco-Boerries-verlaesst-Sun-Microsystems_34117147.html].
}}
References
{{Reflist|refs=
{{cite journal |author-first=Timur |author-last=Vermes |title=Operation Nulltarif. Zwei deutsche Hersteller attackieren die Office-Preise |language=de |journal=c't - magazin für computertechnik |issue=3 |volume=1999 |date=1999 |pages=112–114 }}
{{cite journal |author-first=Ulrich |author-last=Schäfer |title=Die neue Gründerzeit |language=de |journal=Der Spiegel |issue=3 |volume=1997 |date=1997-01-13 |url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-8649493.html |access-date=2018-05-31 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180531115627/http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-8649493.html |archive-date=2018-05-31}}
{{cite journal |author-first=Manfred |author-last=Dworschak |title=Kalkulierter Selbstmord |language=de |journal=Der Spiegel |issue=48 |volume=1998 |date=1998-11-23 |url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-8035571.html |access-date=2018-05-31 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171120055616/http://www.spiegel.de:80/spiegel/print/d-8035571.html |archive-date=2017-11-20}}
{{cite journal |author-first=Klaus-Peter |author-last=Kerbusk |title=Brücke in die neue Welt |language=de |journal=Der Spiegel |issue=36 |volume=1999-09-06 |date=1999|url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-14718402.html |access-date=2018-05-31 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306023618/http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-14718402.html |archive-date=2016-03-06}}
{{cite web |title=Caldera OpenLinux und StarOffice im Bundle |language=de |date=1997-02-20 |author-first=Dieter |author-last=Brors |publisher=Heise Online |url=https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Caldera-OpenLinux-und-StarOffice-im-Bundle-8904.html |access-date=2018-08-08 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180808173039/https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Caldera-OpenLinux-und-StarOffice-im-Bundle-8904.html |archive-date=2018-08-08}}
{{cite journal |title=Produkt-Telegramme: Star Office 3.1 für Linux portiert |language=de |date=1997-05-16 |journal=Computerwoche |url=https://www.computerwoche.de/a/produkt-telegramme,1098774 |access-date=2018-08-08 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180806122733/https://www.computerwoche.de/a/produkt-telegramme,1098774 |archive-date=2018-08-06}}
{{cite journal |title=Der Gründer über Gestern, Heute und Linux |language=de |author-first=Rudolf |author-last=Strobl |date=January 2003 |volume=2003 |issue=1 |id=100 |journal=Linux Magazin |url=http://www.linux-magazin.de/ausgaben/2003/01/lebens-laeufe/ |access-date=2018-08-08 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20180808172643/http://www.linux-magazin.de/ausgaben/2003/01/lebens-laeufe/ |archive-date=2018-08-08}} [https://archive.today/20180808172515/http://www.linux-magazin.de/ausgaben/2003/01/lebens-laeufe/2/]
{{cite journal |title=Linux-Distributionen und frühe Protagonisten aus Deutschland |author-first=Ulrich |author-last=Bantle |language=de |date=October 2017 |volume=2017 |issue=10 |journal=Linux Magazin |url=http://www.linux-magazin.de/ausgaben/2017/10/linux-in-deutschland/ |access-date=2018-08-05 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20180805102242/http://www.linux-magazin.de/ausgaben/2017/10/linux-in-deutschland/ |archive-date=2018-08-05}} [https://archive.today/20180805102906/http://www.linux-magazin.de/ausgaben/2017/10/linux-in-deutschland/2/] [https://archive.today/20180805103029/http://www.linux-magazin.de/ausgaben/2017/10/linux-in-deutschland/3/]
}}
External links
- Star Division, Inc. (archived web site {{mono|stardivision.com}} from [https://web.archive.org/web/19961219162554/http://stardivision.com/ 1996-12-19]{{cbignore}} to [https://web.archive.org/web/19980422163328/http://stardivision.com/ 1998-04-22]{{cbignore}})
- Star Division GmbH (archived web site {{mono|stardivision.de}} from [https://web.archive.org/web/19961219082426/http://www.stardivision.de:80/ 1996-12-19]{{cbignore}} to [https://web.archive.org/web/19980213021848/http://www.stardivision.de:80/ 1998-02-13]{{cbignore}})
{{OpenOffice}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Star Division}}
Category:1985 establishments in West Germany
Category:Companies established in 1985
Category:Defunct software companies of Germany