Delrina

Delrina was a Canadian software company founded by four individuals, Dennis Bennie as CEO and chairman, Mark Skapinker as president, Bert Amato as executive vice president and chief technical officer and Lou Ryan as executive vice president of world wide sales. The company was established during 1988 in Toronto, Ontario and was subsequently acquired by the American software firm Symantec in 1995. These four founders started the Delrina venture together and ended the venture still together six years later. Delrina was Bennie's second major entrepreneurial start up after co-founding Mission Electronics, still today a leading international home theatre equipment company. Delrina's business strategy was to "establish technical and market leadership in niche markets", which it accomplished with its electronic form and PC-based fax software. Delrina's electronic form products included PerForm and FormFlow, but it was best known for its WinFax software package. WinFax enabled computers equipped with fax-modems to transmit faxes to standalone fax machines or other similarly equipped computers. Delrina also produced a set of popular screensavers, including one that resulted in a well-publicized lawsuit for copyright and trademark infringement (Berkeley Systems Inc. v. Delrina). The case set a precedent in American law whereby satiric commercial software products are not subject to the same First Amendment exemptions as parodic cartoons or literature.

The firm grew steadily over the course of the early 1990s, with revenues from WinFax amounting to 80% of the company's revenues. It attempted to diversify into other areas such with online communications software with its WinComm product and produced a Web browser called Cyberjack. The firm was sold to Symantec in 1995. After the company was acquired by Symantec, various divisions were sold off and several of Delrina's former executives went on to found venture capital firms.