Concurrent Computer Corporation
Computer systems | |
Founded | 1985 |
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Fate | 2017, pieces acquired by Battery Ventures and Vecima Networks |
Headquarters | |
Key people |
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Products |
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Revenue | $247 million (1987) |
Number of employees |
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Website | www |
Concurrent Computer Corporation was an American computer company, in existence from 1985 to 2017, that made
Origins and initial efforts
The company was created in November 1985 when the computing division of
James K. Sims, who had been general manager of the computer unit within Perkin-Elmer,[2] became president and CEO of the new company.[1] It had a large presence in Monmouth County, New Jersey, with some 1,700 staff making it one of the county's largest private employers.[2] Its plant in Oceanport had 800 employees alone.[2]
By 1987, Concurrent had nine separate offices in various locations in Monmouth County.[5] Corporate headquarters had initially been Holmdel, but during 1987 moved to Tinton Falls.[5]
The initial focus of Concurrent Computer Corporation was in the
Many of Concurrent's customers were in the defense and aerospace industry.
The
By 1988, there were some 2,800 employees in the company overall,[4] and at its peak, the Oceanport manufacturing facility would have nearly 1,000 people working at it.[12] Revenue for 1987 was $247 million.[4]
Merger with MASSCOMP
An announcement was made on August 1, 1988,[4] that there would be a merger between Concurrent Computer Corporation and the Massachusetts Computer Corporation (MASSCOMP).[13] Technically, MASSCOMP purchased Concurrent for $241 million and was the surviving company, even though Concurrent was more than three times the larger of the two.[3][8] This "minnow-swallows-the-whale" style of merger was prevalent during the 1980s and in this case, as often happened in the era, it was largely financed by junk bonds.[8] As part of the deal, MASSCOMP bought out Perkin-Elmer's share in Concurrent.[3] Unusually, the merged entity kept the name Concurrent Computer Corporation and Sims remained as CEO of it.[3] The merged company's headquarters was the one used for Concurrent in New Jersey,[6] which was also somewhat atypical.[8] The transaction closed on September 27, 1988.[14]
The idea behind the merger was to use MASSCOMP's lower-end offerings in the real-time space to complement Concurrent's higher-end products.[3] In addition, MASSCOMP brought expertise in the Unix operating system, which was rapidly becoming the popular choice for these kind of system offerings.[13] The MASSCOMP flavor of Unix was called RTU, for Real-time Unix.[16] It was featured as the operating system on the Series 5000 and Series 6000 systems.[6]
As it happened, the merger was fraught with obstacles.[13] The debt load imposed by the acquisition proved difficult to reduce, a problem made worse by the advent of the early 1990s recession in the United States, and there were a series of layoffs in the Monmouth County facilities.[8] There were also severe clashes of company culture and dueling product development teams.[13] Finally, improved offerings in the real-time space by larger competitors such as IBM and Digital Equipment Corporation proved difficult to undercut.[13] As one industry analyst subsequently said, the merger "didn't produce anything but problems for Concurrent."[17] In 1990 there was a change at the CEO position at Concurrent, with Sims out and Denis R. Brown in.[8] Soon as well a turnaround expert had been brought in.[13] Another CEO switch happened in 1993, with John Stihl taking over.[17]
The company continued to be involved in the Ada language world during the 1990s. This included being a
By the early 1990s, Concurrent had about 1,250 employees.[19] It put out the Series 8000 product, which was based on the MIPS R3000 processor with RTU running on it.[6] The company's major sales areas were in applications that included weather forecasting, air control, radar simulation, and financial trading.[19]
Merger with Harris Computer Systems
Due to repayments and a debt-for-equity swap, by 1995 the company's debt load had been reduced from $200 million to under $25 million.[17] A competitor at this point was Harris Computer Systems,[20] a real-time computer systems enterprise recently spun off from Harris Corporation.[21] In 1995, Harris Computer Systems, led by its chief executive E. Courtney "Corky" Siegel, looked to buy Concurrent Computer Corporation, but the discussions ended in acrimony.[17]
Negotiations resumed the following year, albeit in the opposite direction, and in June 1996, Concurrent acquired the high-performance computer business of Harris Computer Systems.[20] However, the corporate headquarters was moved from New Jersey to Harris's location of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.[20] Most of the rest of the New Jersey operations, which had been dwindling due to rounds of layoffs and employees leaving, soon followed.[12] As the Asbury Park Press wrote of the Oceanport facility, "The former headquarters of Concurrent Computer Corp. [is] a once bustling place that has been nearly emptied by corporate downsizing".[15] In July 1997, Concurrent sold the Oceanport building, although it still leasebacked a smaller manufacturing and servicing capability within it,[12] responsible for keeping going an older product line.[15]
In 1999, the headquarters of Concurrent was again moved, to
By the early 2000s, Concurrent was continuing its focus on the
End
During 2017, the pieces of Concurrent Computer Corporation were sold off. In May 2017, the real-time systems business was acquired by the private equity firm
References
- ^ a b c d e "Computers: Deals: Perkin-Elmer floating its computer company". The Age. November 26, 1985. p. 49 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d Hordt, Robert (November 14, 1985). "Perkin-Elmer frees computer unit". Asbury Park Press. pp. E11, E14 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d e f Fisher, Lawrence M. (August 3, 1988). "Business People: Concurrent Chief to Get Top Jobs After Merger". The New York Times. p. D4.
- ^ a b c d e Cavaluzzi, Joseph; Jackson, Jeanne (August 2, 1988). "Tinton Falls company announces merger plan". Asbury Park Press. pp. C8, C10 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Alper, Alan (July 6, 1987). "Concurrent restructures, slims staff". Computerworld. p. 76.
- ^ a b c d e f "Ada Validated Compilers List". Lanham, Maryland: Ada Information Clearinghouse. July 1, 1992. pp. 7–8 (Section 1), 1 (Section 2).
- ^ .
- ^ a b c d e f Ward, John T. (September 16, 1990). "CEOs change, but problems remain". Asbury Park Press. pp. B1, B2 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Alper, Alan (April 6, 1987). "Real-time Ada bows". Computerworld. p. 13.
- ^ S2CID 34820243.
- .
- ^ a b c "Weekly Business: Region in Review: Company moving to complex". Asbury Park Press. July 13, 1997. p. B2 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d e f Margolis, Nell (December 10, 1990). "Can Concurrent make a comeback?". Computerworld. pp. 103, 106.
- ^ "Concurrent consolidation complete; factory workers needed". The Sunday Register. Shrewsbury, New Jersey. October 16, 1988. p. 7D – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c Fazzi, Raymond (October 9, 1996). "Concurrent will sell building". Asbury Park Press. pp. C1, C3 – via Newspapers.com.
- S2CID 7561881.
- ^ a b c d Munoz, Daniel J. (June 14, 1995). "Anatomy of a Failed Merger". NJBiz. Retrieved April 24, 2022.
- S2CID 37147893.
- ^ a b "Company News: Concurrent Computer to Expand Sales Force by 10%". The New York Times. Bloomberg News. April 21, 1993. p. D4.
- ^ a b c Fazzi, Raymond (June 27, 1996). "Concurrent may make its move soon". Asbury Park Press. pp. C1, C6 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Lorek, L. A. (August 24, 1999). "Concurrent Moves HQ to Atlanta". South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
- ^ a b Clothier, Mark (June 12, 1999). "Video-on-demand unit of Florida firm moving to Duluth". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. p. F2 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b "Technology Briefing: Hardware: Concurrent Computer Shares Plunge". The New York Times. Bloomberg News. March 19, 2003. p. C5.
- ^ a b Morgan, Timothy Prickett (December 1, 2009). "Concurrent unhoods RedHawk Linux 5.4". The Register.
- ^ "Concurrent Computer Corporation iHawk Systems Chosen By Eurocopter, an EADS company, For Training Simulators" (Press release). Bloomberg News. December 2, 2003.
- ^ "Brief: Concurrent Computer sells real-time business segment to Battery Ventures". Reuters. May 15, 2017.
- ^ Castia, Matteo (April 1, 2021). "Spectris Buys Concurrent Real-Time From Battery Ventures for $166.7 Million". The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company. Archived from the original on April 10, 2021.
- ^ Gavine, Adam (July 16, 2021). "Spectris completes acquisition of Concurrent Real-Time". Vehicle Dynamics International. Mark Allen Group Limited. Archived from the original on May 9, 2022.
- ^ "Vecima to Acquire Video Content Delivery & Storage Business from Concurrent" (Press release). GlobeNewsWire. October 16, 2017.
- ^ "Vecima Closes Acquisition of Concurrent" (Press release). GlobeNewsWire. January 2, 2018.
External links
- Official website of Concurrent Computer Corporation at the Wayback Machine (archived May 19, 2005)
- Official website of Concurrent Real-Time – post-2017 products site
- "Concurrent Computer Corporation", International Directory of Company Histories, c. 2005, as hosted at Encyclopedia.com
- Entry at Northeast Parallel Architectures Center Archived 2022-03-31 at the Wayback Machine at Syracuse University