Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective
Mathematica Inc. (1968–1986)
Defunct American consulting and software firm From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Remove ads
Mathematica Inc. was a multi-faceted American software company and consulting group founded by Princeton University professors in 1958 and established as an independent corporation in 1968. The company had three primary divisions:
- Mathematica Policy Research, which did consulting work, mostly "to develop mathematical models for marketing decision making";
- Mathematica Products Group, best known for developing the RAMIS programming language; and
- MathTech, the company's technical and economic consulting group. The company was also a leading developer of state lottery systems.[1]
It is proposed that this article be deleted because of the following concern:
If you can address this concern by improving, copyediting, sourcing, renaming, or merging the page, please edit this page and do so. You may remove this message if you improve the article or otherwise object to deletion for any reason. Although not required, you are encouraged to explain why you object to the deletion, either in your edit summary or on the talk page. If this template is removed, do not replace it. The article may be deleted if this message remains in place for seven days, i.e., after 04:16, 27 August 2025 (UTC). Find sources: "Mathematica Inc." 1968–1986 – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR Nominator: Please consider notifying the author/project: {{subst:proposed deletion notify|Mathematica Inc. (1968–1986)|concern=[[WP:REDUNDANT]]. Information found in this article already appears in [[Mathematica Inc.]]}} ~~~~ |
In early 1982, the company's stock was split 3-for-2, as the current owners were looking to sell.[2] Martin Marietta acquired all the outstanding stock of Mathematica in 1983.[3] Mathematica Products Group was renamed Mathematica & Oxford Software. Marietta sold the division to On-Line Software International in 1986;[4] On-Line was in turn sold to Computer Associates, in 1991.[5][6] Mathematica Policy Research and MathTech were later spun off and became employee-owned companies in 1986. Mathematica Policy Research was eventually renamed to Mathematica Inc. and it is the only former unit still carrying the full Mathematica name.
Remove ads
Early day participants
- Oskar Morgenstern, economist and one of the company's founders in 1958 (Chairman, 1968)
- Tibor Fabian, Mathematica's Hungarian-born president (1980s)
- William Baumol and William Bowen, economists and early day participants
Divisions
Summarize
Perspective
- Mathematica Policy Research – the only former unit still carrying the Mathematica name.
- Mathematica Products Group – best known for developing RAMIS
- MathTech, the company's technical and economic consulting group – "research projects and computer systems other than Ramis."[1]
A quarter of a century after Mathematica's founding, it "was largely owned by a group of professors in Mathematics and Economics at Princeton University... as this group aged, they opted to cash out by selling." After a brief stint under Martin Marietta, two units became employee-owned companies and another was sold several times.
Mathematica Products Group
In 1982, Mathematica Products Group's RAMIS was described as "nonprocedural" and "bordering on artificial intelligence."[7] This unit of Mathematica was purchased by Martin Marietta Corporation in 1983[8] and renamed to Mathematica & Oxford Software.[4] Marietta sold Mathematica & Oxford Software in 1986 to On-Line Software International, who merged the subsidiary into their own main operations;[4] On-Line was in turn sold to Computer Associates, in 1991.[5][6]
The RAMIS product sold well, initially on mainframes,[9] subsequently on PCs.
Mathematica Policy Research
The Mathematica Policy Research (MPR) unit's strength was in "social experiments and surveys."[1] In 1983 MPR reported "a major survey assignment for the American Medical Association."
In 1986, it became a separate, employee-owned company.
MathTech
Like MPR, in 1986 MathTech became an employee-owned company. Known today as Mathtech, Inc.,[10] it was described by The New York Times as "a Washington-area educational consulting firm [11]
Remove ads
References
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Remove ads