Editing Quarterdeck Office Systems (section)

{{More citations needed|date=February 2010}}
{{Infobox company
| name          = Quarterdeck Office Systems
| logo          = Quarterdeck Corporation logo.svg
| fate          = Acquired by [[NortonLifeLock|Symantec]]<!--Suggestions: bankrupt, merged etc.-->
| successor     = [[NortonLifeLock|Symantec]]<!--company merged into etc.-->
| foundation    = {{Start date and age|1981}}
| founder       = Therese Myers, Gary Pope
| defunct       = 1998<!--date it went bankrupt/merged etc.-->
| location      = [[Marina del Rey, California]],<br/>[[United States]]
| industry      = <!--types of products or services offered-->
| key_people    =
| products      = [[QEMM|Quarterdeck Expanded Memory Manager]], [[DESQview]], [[DESQview/X]]<!--some of company's notable products-->
| num_employees = <!--peak number of employees-->
| parent        = <!--former parent companies, if any-->
| subsid        = <!--former subsidiaries, if any-->
}}
'''Quarterdeck Office Systems''', later '''Quarterdeck Corporation''' ([[NASDAQ]]: QDEK), was an American [[computer software]] company. It was founded by Therese Myers<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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 }}</ref> and Gary Pope in 1981<ref>{{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
}}</ref>
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|Dublin, Ireland]]. Their most famous products were the [[QEMM|Quarterdeck Expanded Memory Manager]], [[DESQview]], [[Norton CleanSweep|CleanSweep]], [[DESQview/X]], Quarterdeck [[Mosaic (web browser)|Mosaic]], [[QEMM#Manifest|Manifest]] and Partition-It.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

On April 18, 1989, Quarterdeck was awarded a US software [[patent]] that allowed multiple windowed PC applications under [[MS-DOS]].<ref>{{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}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref name="autogenerated1">{{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 }}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref>

In 1995, the company acquired Landmark Research International Corp. for 3.5 million shares of Quarterdeck (acquiring [[MagnaRAM]] and WinProbe)<ref>PR Newswire, June 30, 1995. "Quarterdeck Acquires Landmark Research International"</ref> 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).<ref>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".</ref>

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.<ref name="autogenerated2">{{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 }}</ref>

In July 1996, Quarterdeck acquired Vertisoft Systems, publishers of the [[DoubleDisk]] and Fix-It utilities, also for 3.5 million shares of Quarterdeck.<ref>{{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}}</ref> Both Landmark and Vertisoft had extensive revenues from direct-marketing of third party products through telemarketing and direct mail.<ref>{{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 }}</ref>

Bastiaens resigned in August 1996, and Quarterdeck continued under acting Co-CEOs King R. Lee, and Anatoly Tikhman, the former CEO of Vertisoft.<ref name="autogenerated1"/>  The company announced a restructuring and a loss, and in January 1997, Quarterdeck hired Curtis Hessler to run the company.<ref name="autogenerated2"/><ref>{{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 }}</ref>

In 1998, with its DOS utilities market all but collapsed, Quarterdeck was acquired for $0.52 per share by [[NortonLifeLock|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]].<ref>{{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=[[Broadcom#Symantec enterprise security|Symantec]]|access-date=25 June 2016}}</ref>