Phoenix Technologies
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34°08′36.3″N 118°08′27.4″W / 34.143417°N 118.140944°W
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Company type | Privately held |
---|---|
Industry | Software |
Founded | 1979 |
Headquarters | Campbell, California, |
Key people | Gerard Moore, President and Chief Executive Officer |
Products | BIOS firmware: SecureCore, OmniCore, ServerCore BMC firmware: ServerBMC Consumer products: SecureWipe, PassKey |
Revenue | ![]() |
Number of employees | 200+ |
Website | www |
Phoenix Technologies Ltd. is an American company that designs, develops and supports core
Phoenix was incorporated in Massachusetts in September 1979, and its headquarters are in Campbell, California.[2]
History
In 1979, Neil Colvin formed what was then called Phoenix Software Associates after his prior employer, Xitan, went out of business. Neil hired Dave Hirschman, a former Xitan employee. During 1980–1981, they rented office space for the first official Phoenix location at 151 Franklin Street, Boston, Massachusetts.
In this same time period Phoenix purchased a non-exclusive license for
Cloning the IBM PC BIOS
After the success of the
To develop a legal BIOS, Phoenix used a
The first Phoenix PC ROM BIOS was introduced in May 1984, which enabled OEMs such as Hewlett-Packard, Tandy Corporation, and AT&T Computer Systems to build essentially 100%-compatible clones without having to reverse-engineer the PC BIOS themselves as Compaq had.[6][5]
Phoenix licensed the BIOS to clone makers for $290,000. To reassure customers, the company obtained a $2 million insurance policy from
1987–1989
In 1987, Phoenix began the first of many expansion, acquisition, and collapse cycles. It acquired Softstyle, Inc, and Softset, Inc, and began a printer emulation product line, and a Phoenix publishing division. Phoenix also tripled the number of employees from late 1986 to 1989.
Phoenix launched an IPO in June 1988 and made the founder and early employees instant millionaires on paper. The stock price did not sustain its peak of 18¾, and by late 1989 it had plummeted to 3¾. In addition, the company posted a loss of $7.7 million in 1989, due primarily to the consolidation of the PC market, and Phoenix's unsuccessful branching out into collateral markets. In December 1989, Ron Fisher took over as CEO,[11] and again the company focused on the core PC BIOS products, and prevented a hostile takeover bid by Norwood Partners Limited Partnership.
1990s

By 1992, Phoenix was financially healthy enough to start another expansion and acquisition cycle. In January 1992, Phoenix acquired Quadtel, a leading BIOS supplier.
Phoenix also expanded its presence in foreign markets. In 1993 Phoenix acquired SRI KK, a Phoenix distributor, and formed the Phoenix KK Japanese subsidiary. In addition, the offices in Taipei, and Europe were expanded in size. In 1994, Phoenix acquired Guildford, Surrey, UK-based
2001–2003
Phoenix continued to grow steadily from the late 1990s, and saw a significant increase in revenues from the Y2K product refreshes in the PC industry. However, by mid-2001, the PC industry suffered another downturn, and Phoenix was forced to reduce the less profitable product lines, such as the IA-64 effort, and close a number of redundant offices. Phoenix again focused on the core BIOS business for the next few years.
During late 2002 and 2003, Phoenix began to develop specialized firmware-based applications. These applications often had components embedded in the BIOS that allowed them to function in damaged PC systems. These included security applications for password hiding and authentication, PC backup and recovery applications, and basic diagnostic applications. Several applications were obtained through complete acquisitions of other companies, such as the SPEKE technology from Integrity Sciences, or the browser technology from Ravisent.
The PC BIOS business continued its steady, but slow, growth despite a rapidly declining unit price. The Award product line was focused on the low-margin, high volume Desktop product line, while the Phoenix TrustedCore BIOS was primarily successful in the high-end PC systems, and Servers. The revenues from the BIOS business continued to provide the capital to invest further in the applications business.
2005–2008
By late 2005, it became clear that the BIOS revenues could not sustain the losses incurred by the applications business. The BIOS revenue stream was heavily leveraged through fully paid-up licenses, and by early 2006 this business model was no longer sustainable. Phoenix announced some of the largest losses in the company history, and went through another consolidation cycle. Several offices were closed and over 70% of the employees were laid off. By late 2006, after senior management changes, the company refocused on the PC BIOS business and the couple of potentially profitable applications.
In September, the company named Woodson "Woody" Hobbs as president and CEO of Phoenix Technologies. Hobbs had a history of turning struggling companies around. According to company documents, "prior to joining Phoenix, Hobbs served as president and CEO of
By January 2008, Phoenix had posted higher-than-expected Q1 revenues and increased full year guidance.[15]
In 2008, Phoenix also acquired several companies:
- In May, Phoenix acquired BeInSync, Ltd., an Israeli-based provider of an all-in-one solution that allows users to back up, synchronize, share and access data online.[16] Although Phoenix did not disclose the amount of the transaction, according to at least one online report, Phoenix acquired BeInSync for $25 million.[17]
- In July, in an effort to develop a strong online presence and infrastructure for web-based automated service delivery, Phoenix acquired
- In September, Phoenix acquired embedded systems), from mobile and consumer electronics to data communications.[20]
2009–2010
In 2009, Phoenix shut down their Engineering and Sales offices in
In late Q4 2009, Phoenix began exploring strategic alternatives for the products it had developed and purchased in its prior acquisition phase. On January 5, 2010, Phoenix announced it had hired GrowthPoint Technology partners to find alternative business strategies for the FailSafe, HyperSpace and eSupport.com products and would aim to refocus its business strategy on BIOS where it still retained a substantial majority of its revenue.[21]
On April 9, 2010 it was announced that Absolute Software would pay $6.9 million for Phoenix Technologies security technologies, including FailSafe and Freeze.[22]
In August 2010, Marlin Equity Partners, a Los Angeles-based
See also
References
- ^ "Phoenix Technologies Ltd - Phoenix Technologies LTD. Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Fiscal Year 2009 Financial Results". Archived from the original on 2009-10-25. Retrieved 2010-01-18.
- ^ "Corporate Offices". Phoenix Technologies. Archived from the original on 2016-06-13.
- ^ Caruso, Denise (1984-02-27). "IBM wins disputes over PC copyrights". InfoWorld: 15. Retrieved 2015-01-15.
- ^ PC Magazine: 56. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
- ^ a b c d Schmidt, Robert (July 1994). "What Is The BIOS?". Computing Basics. Archived from the original on 2012-03-10. Retrieved 2011-09-19.
- ^ a b c Phoenix Eagerly Waiting to Clone Next-Generation IBM BIOS, InfoWorld, March 9, 1987
- ISBN 0-201-51806-6.
- ISBN 0-201-51804-X.
- ISBN 0-201-51805-8.
- ISBN 0-201-57760-7.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-08-29.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-08-29.
- ^ "PHOENIX TO CUT 38 JOBS, TAKE CHARGE FOR RESTRUCTURE.." Computergram International.
- ^ http://investor.phoenix.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=210260 [dead link ]
- ^ "Phoenix Technologies Ltd - Phoenix Announces Higher-Than-Expected Q1 Revenues and Increased Full Year Guidance". Archived from the original on 2008-04-15. Retrieved 2008-12-11.
- ^ http://investor.phoenix.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=307684 [dead link ]
- ^ Nicholas Deleon (2008-03-26). "BeInSync Acquired by Phoenix Technologies for $25M". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2011-09-19.
- Drivermagicsoftware from Glenn Bluff
- ^ "Phoenix Technologies Ltd - Phoenix Technologies LTD. Completes Acquisition of TouchStone Software". Archived from the original on 2010-02-02. Retrieved 2008-12-11.
- ^ http://investor.phoenix.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=331506 [dead link ]
- ^ "Phoenix Technologies Retains GrowthPoint Technology Partners to Explore Strategic Alternatives for FailSafe, HyperSpace". PRNewsWire.com. Milpitas, California. 2010-01-05. Retrieved 2011-09-19.
- ^ "Phoenix Sheds FailSafe". Seeking Alpha. 9 April 2010. Retrieved 2011-09-19.
- ^ "Private Investment Firm Buys Phoenix Technologies For $139 Million". TechCrunch. 18 August 2010. Retrieved 2019-08-29.
External links
- Official website
- AwardBIOS motherboard download page at the Wayback Machine (archived August 17, 2000)