When Exxon was a player in computer industry (compared to Sunoco's experience)

Tom Paine

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I think of strange things when I wake up in the morning, and today it was Exxon's (some of you might remember a time when Exxon was a separate company, and prior to that it was Esso, which was derived from Standard Oil of New Jersey) strange move to divesify into word processors and semiconductors. I wonder what the corporate strategic planners at Exxon were thinking at the time: that they would eventually run out of petroleum, or maybe someone would find a way to power automobiles with something other than gasoline, but anyway diversification and corporate portfolio strategy was the thing then.







In word processors, Exxon had considerable success, pioneering important innovations in electronic typewriters and word processors through its Qwip, Qyx and Vydec product lines, eventually consolidated into Exxon Office Systems. In 1978, it had a 7% share of the electronic word processing market, although that would shrivel to 4% by 1980. and of course the entire standalone category would soon be made irrelavant by PCs and Macs. Exxon exited the business in 1985.

In microprocessors, it first bought half of Zilog, and lster the entire company in 1980. Zilog's first microprocessor, the Z80, had been a big success. but under Exxon it was mostly downhill, until Exxon exited from the business, also in 1985.

In fact, one of Exxon Office Systems' major production facilities was in Lionville, Chester County. If anyone has memories to share about that plant or Exxon's electronics business, I'd love to hear from you (phillytechnews@gmail.com or @phillytechnews).

Of course, Sunoco (nee Sun Oil) was a bit more successful, starting by selling spare time on its mainframes (which eventually became SunGard Availability), and ultimately building through a series of adroit niche acquisitions SunGard Financial Systems, a dominant player in banking and corporate treasury that just sold for $9.1 billion.