Lotus Completes Purchase Of Closely Held Company

The Wall Street Journal

June 11, 1985

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Lotus Development Corp. said it completed the acquisition of closely held Software Arts Inc. Terms weren't disclosed.

As part of the transaction, it said it will halt production of Visicalc, a Software Arts product that was the first fast-selling software program for personal computers. It said users who own copies of Visicalc for International Business Machines Corp. personal computers can pay $250 and exchange them for Lotus's best-selling 1-2-3 software.

Lotus will continue marketing Spotlight, another Software Arts program. But it is negotiating with third parties that might sell Software Arts' third product, TK!Solver, rather than planning to sell it itself.

Software Arts was one of the first successful software companies, but failed to follow its first hit with other successes and ran short of money for marketing. Lotus said 15 Software Arts workers, including its top two executives, the co-developers of Visicalc, have joined Lotus.

Copyright (c) 1985, Dow Jones & Co., Inc.