Ten years ago this month, two local computer whizzes formed their own little company. Like millions of other Americans who throw their hats into the small-business ring each year, they had an idea they thought would sell.
Alan Ashton and Bruce Bastian had been hard at work, putting together a word-processing program for the city of Orem. Officials agreed to let the pair use the city's Data General computer to make additions to the program, in exchange for free updates. No problem, said city officials - who, a decade later, are figuratively kicking themselves because they didn't ask for a tiny piece of the action.Had the city asked for merely 1 percent of the gross income from what is now known to the world as WordPerfect Corp. - manufacturer of the most popular word-processing program in the United States - it would receive an estimated $2.75 million this year alone. In contrast, the city's total annual revenue from property taxes is $2.6 million.
The fast-growing WordPerfect sprang from humble beginnings. Bastian took a humanities course from Ashton, a computer science professor, at Brigham Young University. Bastian later approached Ashton for help on a project that would show the movements of the BYU Cougar Marching Band on a computer screen.
After using that program to complete a master's degree, Bastian eventually went to work for the Eyring Research Institute at BYU. Ashton, meanwhile, was working on a word-processing program. Eyring Research had a contract to design a word-processing program for Orem City. The two got together again and the rest, as they say, is history. The original Data General computer, where the pair created the program, now sits in a warehouse at Orem's public works complex.
In 1982, WordPerfect 2.2 was released for the IBM personal computer _ a watershed in the word-processing company's history. It was also the first year that company sales exceeded $1 million.
Today, the company's financial profile is somewhat remarkable. It has no debt. It has never had a decrease in quarterly revenues.
The number of employees in the company has soared from three in 1979 to 1,448 as of mid-October. The number of WordPerfect users has grown from five to 3.47 million. With 13 international versions of its program, WordPerfect is the third largest software manufacturer in the United States, with more than half of the word-processing market.
The word-processing program wins frequent awards in the industry, and the company is branching out into the graphics market. DrawPerfect _ a graphics program _ is scheduled for release before the year is out.
So is WordPerfect's latest word-processing update: WordPerfect 5.1. _ which the city of Orem will no doubt receive free of charge _ is scheduled to be out before the end of the year.
Phil Goodrich, Orem's director of administrative services and finance, said the city would have been within its legal rights to ask for a small percentage of the action instead of updated software. In fact, such agreements are common in other parts of the country to help offset drains on city resources that large employers bring.
But, that's not to say the city is unhappy with WordPerfect. Orem will eventually receive roughly $100,000 per year in property taxes from the company's site in the Timpanogos Research and Technology Park. At its Sept. 26 meeting, the City Council passed a resolution congratulating the company on its success on reaching its 10th anniversary on Oct. 1.
The software giant has also provided a successful anchor for the Timpanogos park. Senior planner Jim Wilbur said WordPerfect helps other businesses in the valley _ such as Gazelle and Bushman Press _ prosper. He believes the corporation's spin-off effect is partially responsible for 8,000 to 10,000 Utah Valley jobs, above and beyond the 1,448 WordPerfect employees.
In addition, WordPerfect is partially credited with retail sales in Orem increasing from $1.225 billion in 1984 to $1.366 billion in 1988.
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CHART
Word Perfect Growth
Employee Growth
1979: 3
1980: 6
1981: 11
1982: 18
1983: 47
1984: 84
1985: 199
1986: 306
1987: 554
1988: 1,130
1989: 1,448
Annual Sales
(Estimated Revenue, 1989 sales totaled $192 million at the end of September.
1979: $36,000
1980: $450,000
1981: