Lotus
In 1982 Manzi went to Lotus Development as a consultant for McKinsey and became an employee three months later. In 1984, he became President and two years later Chairman and CEO succeeding founder Mitchell Kapor who had been concentrating exclusively on products like Jazz and Agenda for two years. Manzi's most notable contribution at Lotus was steering the company from desktop applications (e.g. Lotus 1-2-3 and Lotus Symphony) towards collaborative software, also known as groupware or workgroup computing software (e.g., Lotus Notes). In the spring of 1995 IBM launched a hostile bid for Lotus with a $60-per-share tender offer, when Lotus' stock was only trading at $32. Manzi looked for potential white knights, and forced IBM to increase its bid to $64.50 per share, for a $3.5 billion buyout of Lotus. On October 11, 1995 Manzi announced his resignation from the Lotus division of IBM.
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Famous quotes containing the word lotus:
“It’s a mining town in lotus land.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“I passed a little further on and heard a lotus talk:
Who made the world and ruleth it, He hangeth on a stalk,
For I am in His image made, and all this tinkling tide
Is but a sliding drop of rain between His petals wide.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)