MapInfo Corporation
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MapInfo Corporation, initially incorporated as Navigational Technologies Incorporated, was a company that developed
location intelligence In business intelligence, location intelligence (LI), or spatial intelligence, is the process of deriving meaningful insight from geospatial data relationships to solve a particular problem. It involves layering multiple data sets spatially and/o ...
software. It was headquartered in
North Greenbush, New York North Greenbush is a town in Rensselaer County, New York, United States. North Greenbush is located in the western part of the county. The population was 13,292 at the 2020 census. The town has three main hamlets, Wynantskill in the northeaster ...
. Its products included a desktop mapping application, various map and demographic data products, and some web-based applications. It acquired several other companies in order to market their software, data, or services directly. It was acquired in 2007 by
Pitney Bowes Pitney Bowes Inc. is an American technology company most known for its postage meters and other mailing equipment, services, and other technologies. The company was founded by Arthur Pitney, who invented the first commercially available postage m ...
, and became Precisely in December 2019 when acquired by Syncsort.


History

MapInfo was founded in 1986 by Laszlo Bardos, Andrew Dressel, John Haller, and Sean O’Sullivan. The four were students at nearby
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (; RPI) is a private university, private research university in Troy, New York, United States. It is the oldest technological university in the English-speaking world and the Western Hemisphere. It was establishe ...
who wanted to develop an inexpensive mapping tool for the PC. They got a contract to develop bus routes for a local school district, and used the money to develop their first product. They contacted Michael Marvin early in the company's history for advice on how to form the company. Marvin helped to set up the business and used his community contacts to raise seed capital. The company originated as a Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute incubator project. The first intended product was for in-car navigation, but this was abandoned when inertial navigation proved impractical. Early competition for MapInfo software came from Strategic Mapping, which had been founded by
Steve Poizner Stephen Leo Poizner (born January 4, 1957) is an American businessman and politician who served as the Insurance Commissioner of the state of California from 2007 to 2011. Formerly a Republican, Poizner ran unsuccessfully as an independent cand ...
around the same time. Later, Strategic Mapping was sold to Claritas Worldwide in May 1996. Its other competitor was
ESRI Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., doing business as Esri (), is an American Multinational corporation, multinational geographic information system (GIS) software company headquartered in Redlands, California. It is best known for ...
, which primarily sold expensive
GIS A geographic information system (GIS) consists of integrated computer hardware and software that store, manage, analyze, edit, output, and visualize geographic data. Much of this often happens within a spatial database; however, this is not ...
software for engineering workstations. MapInfo appeared at number 23 in Inc. Magazine's annual list of the 500 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. in 1992. MapInfo held an
initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...
(IPO) on February 1, 1994. In the years prior to the IPO, Marvin served as chairman of the board, hiring the CEO and making sure he was comfortable with how the company was being managed. Marvin insisted that the company be run on a cash flow break-even basis, but did raise a rainy-day fund of $2 million from
Greylock Partners Greylock Partners is one of the oldest venture capital firms, founded in 1965, with committed capital of over $3.5 billion under management. The firm focuses on early-stage companies in consumer and enterprise software. History Greylock wa ...
in 1989. MapInfo hired Brian D. Owen to be the CEO in 1991, who brought in Matthew Szulik as VP of Sales and Doug Finlay as CFO. Robertson Stephens was the lead investment bank that managed the IPO. On April 19, 2007,
Pitney Bowes Pitney Bowes Inc. is an American technology company most known for its postage meters and other mailing equipment, services, and other technologies. The company was founded by Arthur Pitney, who invented the first commercially available postage m ...
entered into a merger agreement to acquire MapInfo Corporation for approximately $408 million in cash. Following the acquisition, MapInfo changed its name to Pitney Bowes MapInfo Corporation. On December 18, 2007, Pitney Bowes also acquired Encom Technology whose products include Encom Discover and Encom Engage which are the major plugins for
MapInfo Professional MapInfo Pro is a desktop geographic information system (GIS) software developed by Precisely, used for mapping and location analysis. It was formerly developed by Pitney Bowes Software and the MapInfo Corporation. History Version 4 of the p ...
. As of January 28, 2009, MapInfo and Group 1 Software were operating as one division called Pitney Bowes Business Insight. On August 26, 2019, Pitney Bowes sold its software division (which includes MapInfo Professional) to Syncsort for $700 million in cash. The company is rebranded as Precisely in December 2019.


Product history

MapInfo developed the first desktop GIS in 1986 . Originally, the intention was to create an easy-to-use software package that did not require exceedingly large amounts of computing power. MapInfo provided the first tools to
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
that allowed them to include mapping functionality in their products, specifically the mapping add-on branded as
Microsoft Map Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
for
Microsoft Excel Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet editor developed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows, Windows, macOS, Android (operating system), Android, iOS and iPadOS. It features calculation or computation capabilities, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a ...
as part of MS Office 95. The add-on was subsequently included in
Microsoft Office 97 Microsoft Office 97 (version 8.0) is the fifth major release for Windows of Microsoft Office, released by Microsoft on November 19, 1996. A Mac OS equivalent, Microsoft Office 98 Macintosh Edition, was released on January 6, 1998. Microsoft Off ...
, and
Microsoft Office 2000 Microsoft Office 2000 (version 9.0) is a release of Microsoft Office, an office suite developed and distributed by Microsoft for the Windows family of operating systems. Office 2000 was released to manufacturing on March 29, 1999, and was made av ...
. This provided the inspiration for the
Microsoft MapPoint Microsoft MapPoint is a discontinued software program and service created by Microsoft that allows users to view, edit and integrate maps. The software and technology are designed to facilitate the geographical visualization and analysis of eithe ...
program, which became a separate product from Microsoft, and since then Microsoft Map was dropped. MapInfo developed a spatial datablade for
Informix Informix is a product family within IBM's Information Management division that is centered on several relational database management system (RDBMS) and multi-model database offerings. The Informix products were originally developed by Inform ...
and collaborated with
Oracle Corporation Oracle Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational computer technology company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Co-founded in 1977 in Santa Clara, California, by Larry Ellison, who remains executive chairman, Oracle was ...
to develop the original spatial cartridge for the Oracle 8i database. In 2000, MapInfo partnered with
Lucent Lucent Technologies, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications equipment company headquartered in Murray Hill, New Jersey. It was established on September 30, 1996, through the divestiture of the former AT&T Technologies busines ...
to "develop location-based services for mobile communications devices."


Acquisition history

*2007: Encom Technology, a supplier of specialist software, data and services to the global mineral exploration and petroleum industries. *2007: Graphical Data Capture, a developer of applications and offerer of consulting services primarily to local and regional UK govt authorities, in addition to utilities, financial services and insurance cos. *2005: MarkeTech Systems, Inc., a Raleigh, North Carolina–based provider of software, data and services for use by retail banks to enhance branch network sales and profitability. *2005: GeoBusiness Solutions Limited (location-based analytical and modeling services and software in the UK) *2004: Southbank Systems, a supplier of Asset Management systems and services to local government, civil engineering companies and utilities, primarily within the UK but also within New Zealand, Australia and the Asia pacific markets *2003: Thompson Associates, one of the top providers of retail site selection consulting. *2000: Compusearch Inc., a provider of micro-marketing segmentation and market analysis software in Canada. *1998: On Target Mapping, telecommunications mapping provider in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania *1997: The Data Consultancy (formerly The Unit for Retail Planning Information (URPI)), a MapInfo partner with products and expertise in market analysis and data products in the UK.


See also

*
MapBasic MapBasic is a programming language for creation of additional tools and functionality for the MapInfo Pro geographic information system. MapBasic is based on the BASIC family of programming languages. MapBasic also allows programmers to develop ...
*
MapInfo Professional MapInfo Pro is a desktop geographic information system (GIS) software developed by Precisely, used for mapping and location analysis. It was formerly developed by Pitney Bowes Software and the MapInfo Corporation. History Version 4 of the p ...
*
MapInfo TAB format The MapInfo TAB format is a geospatial vector data format for geographic information systems software. It is developed and regulated by Precisely as a proprietary format. File components The basic file components for a MapInfo Professional dat ...
* MapInfo Interchange MIF and MID format


References


External links


Pitney Bowes Business Insight website

MapInfo-L Users Community Site
{{Authority control Companies based in New York (state) GIS software companies American companies established in 1986 Software companies established in 1986 1986 establishments in New York (state) Defunct software companies of the United States