Wicat Systems was an American computer and software company founded in 1980 in

Orem Orem is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States, in the northern part of the state. It is adjacent to Provo, Lindon, and Vineyard and is approximately south of Salt Lake City. Orem is one of the principal cities of the Provo-Orem, Utah M ...

, Utah. Originally a branch of WICAT, the World Institute for Computer-Assisted Teaching (later the Wicat Education Institute), the company manufactured

multi-user Multi-user software is computer software that allows access by multiple users of a computer. Time-sharing systems are multi-user systems. Most batch processing systems for mainframe computers may also be considered "multi-user", to avoid leaving t ...

systems for educational institutions before focusing their efforts on educational

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. ...

development in the early 1990s. The company was among the first to use the Motorola 68000 microprocessor in a computer with the introduction of the Wicat System 100 in 1980. Both Wicat Systems and its parent institution were founded by Dustin H. Heuston, originally of New York.

History

At its peak in the mid-1980s, Wicat Systems employed 500 and had an annual budget of US$40 million. The company formed a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and economic risk, risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four rea ...

with Control Data Corporation in early 1985. Named Plato/Wicat after Control Data's Plato educational software, the venture was intended to "address the entire educational process, including computer-based instructional courseware, testing and evaluation, and classroom management and administration". In 1992, the company was acquired by

Jostens Jostens is an American manufacturer of memorabilia. The company is primarily known for its production of yearbooks and class rings for various high schools and colleges as well as championship rings for sports. Jostens also produced photobook pro ...

in a stock swap valuated at roughly $111 million. Jostens, who had a rival educational software division Jostens Learning which was aimed at preschools, planned to use the Wicat Systems repertoire to increase their presence in high schools and

higher education Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after comple ...

Citations

References

* * * * * * 1980 establishments in Utah 1992 disestablishments in Utah 1992 mergers and acquisitions American companies established in 1980 American companies disestablished in 1992 Companies based in Orem, Utah Computer companies established in 1980 Computer companies disestablished in 1992 Defunct computer companies of the United States Defunct software companies of the United States Defunct computer hardware companies {{Computer-company-stub