Sydney Development Corporation ("SDC"), was the first publicly-traded software company in Canada. Founded by

Tarrnie Williams Tryon "Tarrnie" M. Williams (born November 11, 1940) is a Canadian businessman. He is the founder of Canada's first publicly traded software company, Sydney Development Corporation formed in 1978. From 1987 to 1991 he was President and CEO of Di ...

, SDC developed an online real-time project management system for the

IBM System z IBM Z is a family name used by IBM for all of its z/Architecture mainframe computers. In July 2017, with another generation of products, the official family was changed to IBM Z from IBM z Systems; the IBM Z family now includes the newest mode ...

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, then various different business applications for

microcomputer A microcomputer is a small, relatively inexpensive computer having a central processing unit (CPU) made out of a microprocessor. The computer also includes memory and input/output (I/O) circuitry together mounted on a printed circuit board (PC ...

s such as the

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, and eventually became the first developer and publisher of computer games for microcomputers in Canada. In 1981, SDC agreed to publish ''Evolution'' by

Don Mattrick Donald Allan Mattrick (born 13 February 1964) is a Canadian businessman known for being the former CEO of social gaming company Zynga, as well as a member of its board of directors. Previously, Mattrick was the president of the Interactive Enter ...

and Jeff Sembers, after Williams's 10-year-old son enjoyed a demo of the game. ''Evolution'' sold over 400,000 copies, and Mattrick and Sembers went on to found

Distinctive Software Distinctive Software Inc. (''DSI'') was a Canadian video game developer established in Burnaby, British Columbia, by Don Mattrick and Jeff Sember after their success with the game ''Evolution''. Mattrick (age 17) and Jeff Sember approached Sydney ...

. Sydney Development Corp. was the fastest-growing public company in Canada in the five-year period 1978 to 1983 with fiscal year 1983 revenues of

Can$ The Canadian dollar (symbol: $; code: CAD; french: dollar canadien) is the currency of Canada. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, there is no standard disambiguating form, but the abbreviation Can$ is often suggested by notable style g ...

21 million (equivalent to $ in ). The company filed for bankruptcy on 23 May 1989.

References

{{Reflist 1978 establishments in British Columbia Software companies of Canada