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The Rise and Fall of Ashton-Tate (2023)

Vulcan & dBASE

Ashton-Tate, the personal computer software pioneer that stumbled badly in recent years, will be acquired by fast-growing Borland International in a stock swap valued at $439 million, the two companies announced Wednesday. The deal, expected to be final within three months, probably will result in further cuts at Ashton-Tate’s Torrance headquarters--now home to less than a third of the company’s 1,600 worldwide work force--as employees are reassigned to Borland facilities in the Silicon Valley or laid off. So, while sales were falling, the company had grown in employee head count, engaged in expensive legal pursuits, neglected their loyal customers… that sounds like plenty of reason for their difficulties without saying their problems were due the loss of an individual or over-reliance on a singular product.

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