CompuAdd Corporation was a manufacturer of

personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tec ...

s in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

. It assembled its product from components manufactured by others. CompuAdd created generic PC clone computers, but unlike most clone makers, it had a large engineering staff. CompuAdd also created a

Multimedia PC The Multimedia PC (MPC) was a recommended configuration for a personal computer (PC) with a CD-ROM drive. The standard was set and named by the "Multimedia PC Marketing Council", which was a working group of the Software Publishers Association (SP ...

(MPC), the FunStation, and a

Sun workstation The SUN workstation was a modular computer system designed at Stanford University in the early 1980s. It became the seed technology for many commercial products, including the original workstations from Sun Microsystems. History In 1979 Xerox do ...

clone, the SS-1. CompuAdd was the largest clone PC manufacturer in Austin until 1993 and outsold PC's Limited (now

Dell Computer Corporation Dell is an American based technology company. It develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services. Dell is owned by its parent company, Dell Technologies. Dell sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data s ...

). CompuAdd sold PCs to corporate, educational and government entities. CompuAdd Computers 386 was on the US Army's Mobile Missile System in

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

1 (1991) and it was rated and tested by the Army for that use.

History

Background

Bill Hayden was born in

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , s ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. He went to school at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

and graduated with a degree in

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

in 1971. He was employed by

Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American technology company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that designs and manufactures semiconductors and various integrated circuits, which it sells to electronics designers and manufacturers globall ...

as a design engineer in a classified government reconnaissance project. In 1974, he switched to TI's Calculator Division and became a project engineer. It was there that Hayden claims he developed the entrepreneurial spirit that he later applied when he started CompuAdd. After several years in this position, which required a great deal of overtime, he decided that he needed more time to contemplate his future. He noticed that quality assurance was less demanding work with shorter hours and switched to that. As his 10-year anniversary with TI approached in 1981, Hayden turned in his resignation."Texas EE Seizes the Entrepreneurial Spirit", ''EDN'', January 14, 1993
/ref> CompuAdd was always 2nd fiddle to across town rival Dell Computer. Hayden's desire to have better name recognition and his own engineering staff stretched his company too far in debt. Retail stores, engineering development cost overruns, and creation of CompuLite instead of cutting costs in his core business, all led to the company's demise. Hayden tried several other business ventures that were unsuccessful.

Products and retail stores

CompuAdd was founded by Bill Hayden in the following year, 1982. CompuAdd using $100,000 earned by selling real estate part-time. Hayden sold computer peripherals and add-on devices such as disk drives. The name came from this computer add-on business plan. The company's marketing slogan was: ''Customer Driven, by Design'', and it prided itself on its "no frills" corporate culture. CompuAdd operated a chain of retail computer stores in the United States. They also had a strong server line. At the height of CompuAdd's reign, it had over 100 sales people. In 1992, Hayden split the company into two parts: "one to handle 125 retail outlets and international markets" and the other for "large business and government accounts."

Bankruptcy and acquisition

In 1993, CompuAdd closed all of its 110 retail stores, to concentrate on direct sales, and sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection – but also launched a new line of Centura personal computers. When they emerged from bankruptcy in November 1993, 75 percent ownership of the company was transferred to unsecured creditors, with Hayden retaining 20 percent and the remainder held for employees. Hayden shortly afterwards resigned as CEO, a position taken over by Richard Krause, the company's president and chief operating officer. CompuAdd was subsequently bought by Dimeling, Schrieber & Park, a private Philadelphia investment company in September 1994.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Compuadd 1982 establishments in Texas 1994 disestablishments in Texas 1994 mergers and acquisitions American companies established in 1982 American companies disestablished in 1994 Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1993 Computer companies established in 1982 Computer companies disestablished in 1994 Defunct computer companies of the United States Defunct computer hardware companies Manufacturing companies based in Austin, Texas Texas Instruments spinoffs