Consumers Software was a

computer networking A computer network is a set of computers sharing resources located on or provided by network nodes. The computers use common communication protocols over digital interconnections to communicate with each other. These interconnections are ...

company based in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. 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 state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. Consumers Software was acquired by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...

on March 18, 1991 and merged its technology with Microsoft Windows and

Microsoft Mail Microsoft Mail (or MSMail/MSM) was the name given to several early Microsoft e-mail products for local area networks, primarily two architectures: one for Macintosh networks, and one for PC architecture-based LANs. All were eventually replaced ...

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.

References

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