Consumers Software was a

computer networking A computer network is a collection of communicating computers and other devices, such as printers and smart phones. In order to communicate, the computers and devices must be connected by wired media like copper cables, optical fibers, or b ...

company based in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. The company created early spreadsheet utilities and later developed Network Courier, an email product based on the concept of one or more connected 'post offices'. The post office could be connected to legacy email systems, such as PROFS, DEC and other largely mainframe based email system using connectors. Consumers Software was one of two companies selling PC-LAN email systems at the time. The other was cc:Mail, based in

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 ...

. Consumers Software was acquired by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

on March 18, 1991 and merged its technology with

Microsoft 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 ...

and Microsoft Mail for PC Networks. The Network Courier server development group became Microsoft Workgroup Vancouver, part of the Workgroup Computing Division of Microsoft, before being shut down, with its employees relocated to the main Microsoft campus in

Redmond, Washington Redmond is a city in King County, Washington, United States, located east of Seattle. The population was 73,256 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Redmond is best known as the home of Microsoft and Nintendo of America. The city h ...

References

Networking companies Former Microsoft subsidiaries Software companies of Canada Microsoft acquisitions {{tech-company-stub