Mustang Software, Inc. was a

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

-based corporation that developed telecommunications software products. Mustang was incorporated in 1988, became a public corporation (

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

ticker symbol MSTG) in 1995, and was finally merged into Quintus Corporation in 2000. Mustang's first software products were sold using the

shareware Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer. ...

model. As the company grew, the products were soon migrated to shrinkware. During the rise of the Internet and electronic software distribution, Mustang stopped distributing physical products and instead sold

license A license (American English) or licence (Commonwealth English) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another part ...

s to its software.

Major Products

Wildcat! BBS

For most of its lifetime, Mustang's flagship product was

Wildcat! BBS Wildcat! BBS is a bulletin board system server application that Mustang Software developed in 1986 for MS-DOS, and later ported to Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphica ...

. Wildcat! was a

bulletin board system A bulletin board system (BBS), also called a computer bulletin board service (CBBS), is a computer server running list of BBS software, software that allows users to connect to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, the user perfor ...

that computer users could dial into using a

modem The Democratic Movement (, ; MoDem ) is a centre to centre-right political party in France, whose main ideological trends are liberalism and Christian democracy, and that is characterised by a strong pro-Europeanist stance. MoDem was establis ...

to communicate with other users online. Initially, only one user could be dialed into the system at one time, but technological advances later allowed more than one user to be online simultaneously and to interact with one another. The first versions of Wildcat! ran on the DOS platform. In the mid-1990s, Mustang developed a new version called ''WINServer'' that ran on

32-bit In computer architecture, 32-bit computing refers to computer systems with a processor, memory, and other major system components that operate on data in a maximum of 32- bit units. Compared to smaller bit widths, 32-bit computers can perform la ...

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

platforms. Wildcat! was sold t
Santronics Software, Inc.
in 1998
/ref> as Mustang wanted to concentrate on its new software products.

Qmodem Pro

Mustang bought Qmodem from The Forbin Project in 1992 and renamed it to Qmodem Pro. Qmodem Pro was a DOS-based communications program, intended for use by computer users to dial into BBS systems. Mustang developed versions of Qmodem Pro for

16-bit 16-bit microcomputers are microcomputers that use 16-bit microprocessors. A 16-bit register can store 216 different values. The range of integer values that can be stored in 16 bits depends on the integer representation used. With the two ...

and

version of Windows. Support for RIP was added in 1993. Qmodem Pro continued to be sold by Mustang through 2000, and the rights to it were purchased by Quintus.

Internet Message Center

Mustang develope
Mustang Software
in 1997 in response to the drop in the

market due to the rise of the Internet. Internet Message Center, or IMC as it was known, was designed to handle incoming corporate email. The email was filtered, sorted, tracked, and distributed to agents (people who would respond to the email). Agent responses would be routed back through IMC so a complete history of email conversations with a customer could be recorded. IMC also provided reporting features to analyze email performance. The rights to IMC were purchased by Quintus in 2000.

History

*September 1986: Jim Harrer starts Mustang Software in the bedroom of his

Bakersfield, California Bakersfield is a city in and the county seat of Kern County, California, United States. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, which is located in the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's population as of th ...

home. *March 1987: The first version of the company's Wildcat! software ships. It is designed to let computers connect to electronic

bulletin board A bulletin board (pinboard, pin board, noticeboard, or notice board in British English) is a surface intended for the posting of public messages, for example, to advertise items wanted or for sale, announce events, or provide information. ...

s via

. *December 23, 1988: Mustang Software is incorporated in California. *1991: The third version of Mustang's Wildcat! software is released, generating success for the fledgling business. *April 1995: Mustang Software completes its first offering of

common stock Common stock is a form of corporate equity ownership, a type of security. The terms voting share and ordinary share are also used frequently outside of the United States. They are known as equity shares or ordinary shares in the UK and other C ...

. Almost immediately following its decision to go public, the company's fortunes began to erode as bulletin board software is rendered obsolete by

web browser A web browser, often shortened to browser, is an application for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's scr ...

s. *1995 and 1996: Mustang's first attempts to develop web browser software are overshadowed by

Netscape Navigator The 1990s releases of the Netscape (web browser), Netscape line referred to as Netscape Navigator were a series of now discontinued web browsers. from versions 1 to 4.08. It was the Core product, flagship product of the Netscape, Netscape Comm ...

and

Microsoft Internet Explorer Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated as IE or MSIE) is a retired series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft that were used in the Windows line of operating ...

. Cutbacks shrink company staff from a high of around 60 people to only 30. Mustang records heavy losses as profits plummet. *September 1997: Mustang releases Internet Message Center software to critical acclaim. Supporting software is also released that year. The software allows companies to efficiently route, track and answer e-mail from customers. *September 1998: Mustang issues an additional $1.5 million in company stock to bolster dwindling cash resources. Investors also provide a $5 million line of equity credit. The move prevents Mustang from losing its place on the Nasdaq Small Cap market. *November 19, 1998: Mustang sells its Wildcat! software to

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

-based Santronics Software, Inc. *April 1999: Mustang posts its first profit in 12 consecutive quarters, recording a $10,299 improvement in its bottom line. *Second through fourth quarters 1999: Mustang again posts moderate losses as it builds a national sales force, regenerating its employee rolls to 62 people. Profits skyrocket as Internet Message Center finds a host of major clients in the business world. *October 1999: Mustang Software changes its name to Mustang.com. *February 28, 2000: Mustang.com announces a planned merger with Quintus Corp. Quintus will acquire Mustang for $290 million in stock. Quintus's IMC is eventually purchased by

Avaya Avaya LLC(), formerly Avaya Inc., is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Morristown, New Jersey, that provides cloud communications and workstream collaboration services. The company's platform includes unified commun ...

References

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External links

Mustang Software, Inc.History of Mustang
(57 MB PDF) * http://www.computerhope.com/comp/mustang.htm Software companies established in 1988 Defunct software companies of the United States Software companies disestablished in 2000 Defunct computer companies based in California 1988 establishments in California 2000 disestablishments in California