Delrina was an electronic form company in Canada that was acquired by the American software firm Symantec in 1995. The company was best known for WinFax, a software package which enabled computers equipped with fax modems to transmit copies of documents to standalone fax machines or other similarly equipped computers. Delrina also produced a set of screensavers, including one that resulted in a well-publicized lawsuit for copyright and trademark infringement.
About Delrina in brief
Delrina was an electronic form company in Canada that was acquired by the American software firm Symantec in 1995. The company was best known for WinFax, a software package which enabled computers equipped with fax modems to transmit copies of documents to standalone fax machines or other similarly equipped computers. Delrina also produced a set of screensavers, including one that resulted in a well-publicized lawsuit for copyright and trademark infringement. The case set a precedent in American law whereby satiric commercial software products are not subject to the same First Amendment exemptions as parodic cartoons or literature. It also sold online communications software with its WinComm product and produced a Web browser called Cyberjack. The firm was sold to Symantech in 1995 and various divisions were sold off and several of Delrina’s former executives went on to found venture capital firms. It was Dennis Bennie’s third major entrepreneurial start up after co-founding Mission Electronics, a high-end home entertainment equipment producer, and Aviva Software, which became Ingram Micro Canada. In early 1991 InfoWorld selected PerForm Proas its \”Product of the Year\” in the electronic formscategory, and PC World Magazine gave the product it’s \”Best Buy\” designation. In the early 1990s Delrina made value-added deals with GE Information Services who the staff to customize the product to the needs of corporate customers looking to move away from paper-based forms.
The forms-based products sold well and the firm grew steadily; annual revenues for the firm were 5,630,393, in 1990, they were USD 8,623,474 by 1991 and by 1991 they were 11,894,474. Despite the growing revenues, the company struggled to make a profit and by the end of fiscal year 1991 the firm’s losses from USD 500,000 to USD 1,500,000 from 1989 to 1991. It went out of business in 1991 and the following fiscal year the firm lost USD 5 million to 5 million. It is now based in Toronto, Canada, and has offices in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. It has also had offices in Washington, DC, and Lexington, Massachusetts, and other offices in Europe and the U.S. It had a long-term uptake of electronic forms products within governmental agencies both in Canada and the United States, the latter spurred on in particular by the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act to reduce the total amount of paperwork handled by the U States government. In 1990 the software was installed on Compaq laptops that accompanied U. S. troops during the First Gulf War, where it was used to requisition \”everything from Coca-Cola to privies\”. Other significant volume sales went to 3M and Rockwell International. In 1993 PerForm proved to be successful in the retail market by 1993, effectively capturing the value- Added resellers to its niche market. In 1994 the firm made deals with NCR and NCR had a value- added reseller to its retail market.
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This page is based on the article Delrina published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 03, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
