Adobe Systems Inc - Early History: Warnock And Geschke

EARLY HISTORY: WARNOCK AND GESCHKE

Adobe Systems Inc. was founded in 1982 by research John Warnock and Charles Geschke. Less than two decades later, with annual sales exceeding $1 billion, Adobe held the third-place spot among the largest PC software companies in the United States. The firm emerged in the mid-1980s as a major force in desktop publishing and in the late-1990s as a leader in Web authoring tools and other Internet publishing technology.

Adobe's founders met at Xerox Corp. While earning his doctorate degree in electrical engineering at the University of Utah, Warnock—who would be named one of the "Ten Revolutionaries of Computing" in 1998 by Computer Reseller News—had worked for IBM Corp., as well as a handful of other technology companies. In 1980, he accepted a graphics research position at Xerox's new graphics and imaging lab, which was headed up by Geschke. Together, Warnock and Geschke created the Post-Script computer language, which conveyed to printers how electronic characters, lines, and digital images appear on paper. Dissatisfied with Xerox's limited interest in the new product, Warnock and Geschke decided to resign and establish a new company, Adobe Systems, as a vehicle for selling PostScript. Their printer language would soon fuel the desktop publishing industry's explosive growth, as well as the surging popularity of laser printers.

Adobe's first big break came when Geschke and Warnock convinced Apple Computer Inc. to use Post-Script with its LaserWriter printer. As part of the deal, Apple purchased a 19-percent stake in Adobe. The first printer using the PostScript language was made available for sale in 1985. Texas Instruments Inc. began using PostScript in its IBM-compatible PCs in 1986. That year, Adobe conducted its initial public offering (IPO).

In 1987, Adobe launched its Illustrator design software program and expanded overseas by establishing Adobe Systems Europe. Soon thereafter, the company increased its international operations by founding a sales unit in the Pacific Rim. The acquisition of BluePoint Technologies, Nonlinear Technologies, and OCR Systems in the early 1990s marked the beginning of an expansion period. Along with seeking growth through acquisition, Adobe had already started licensing its PostScript software to printer manufacturers. In 1993, the firm also unveiled Acrobat, a software program that allowed users to create and view documents that included text, graphics, and even photos, regardless of whether they worked on a Macintosh or PC. Acrobat's portable document format (PDF) not only allowed for the transfer of files between incompatible systems, it also greatly simplified the electronic distribution of all sorts of documents.