# Which "obscure-ish" computer program made someone the most money? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 8, 2019, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-obscure-ish-computer-program-made-someone-the-most-money/830776 "2019-03-08T16:46:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-obscure-ish-computer-program-made-someone-the-most-money/830776/41 "2019-03-12T00:57:45Z")
WhatsApp was sold to FaceBook in 2014 for $19B and I believe this was split between the two founders, so each made almost $10B off of a single app. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-obscure-ish-computer-program-made-someone-the-most-money/830776/42 "2019-03-12T01:14:59Z")
> [@brossa](#): > > Judith Faulkner founded Epic Systems in 1979. Epic is still a privately held corporation, and has never acquired any other companies. Epic does health care software; reportedly 65% of American medical records are on Epic systems. Faulkner is worth 3.something billion. Youngest daughter used to work there. Their campus in Madison is SICK! ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-obscure-ish-computer-program-made-someone-the-most-money/830776/43 "2019-03-12T01:32:39Z")
> [@brossa](#): > > Judith Faulkner founded Epic Systems in 1979. Epic is still a privately held corporation, and has never acquired any other companies. Epic does health care software; reportedly 65% of American medical records are on Epic systems. Faulkner is worth 3.something billion. Not quite obscure enough. Nearly all medical administrators, IT personnel, and lots of other personnel use the software and are pretty clear on what it does. On the flip side, The valuation of the company varies, $3.something billion is at the low end. Less well known but more widely used is Intersystems Cache database system. Epic Systems software is built on it but the end users mostly don’t know that. It has plenty of other customers world-wide medical, financial, and government systems among more specialized users. It’s also a privately owned company valued at several billion bucks. ---
**Author:** ![MDfive21](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@MDfive21](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MDfive21)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-obscure-ish-computer-program-made-someone-the-most-money/830776/44 "2019-03-12T15:45:31Z")
Mark Cuban got 5.7B from yahoo for [broadcast.com](http://broadcast.com) in 1999. not sure if that passes the obscure test, but i sure didn’t know about it ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-obscure-ish-computer-program-made-someone-the-most-money/830776/45 "2019-03-12T18:32:53Z")
> [@MDfive21](#): > > Mark Cuban got 5.7B from yahoo for [broadcast.com](http://broadcast.com) in 1999. not sure if that passes the obscure test, but i sure didn’t know about it I think that’s a letter of the law kind of thing, not a spirit of the law. Cuban got extraordinarily, stupdendously, colossally lucky in selling out to Yahoo! at nearly the absolute height of the Internet bubble. There was no indication that [broadcast.com](http://broadcast.com) was worth anywhere near what he got for it(it had consistently lost money prior to the sale, for one thing). Yahoo just rolled it into their services, and eventually just sunset it. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-obscure-ish-computer-program-made-someone-the-most-money/830776/46 "2019-03-12T20:31:48Z")
> [@MDfive21](#): > > Mark Cuban got 5.7B from yahoo for [broadcast.com](http://broadcast.com) in 1999. not sure if that passes the obscure test, but i sure didn’t know about it But he didn’t get actual cash, but rather Yahoo stock. With restrictions on him selling it. That became worth a lot less when the [dot.com](http://dot.com) bubble burst, and Yahoo stock went way down. Meanwhile Christopher Jaeb, the original founder (as AudioNet), had sold to Cuban for ‘only’ $50 million. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-obscure-ish-computer-program-made-someone-the-most-money/830776/47 "2019-03-12T21:35:10Z")
> [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](#): > > But he didn’t get actual cash, but rather Yahoo stock. With restrictions on him selling it. That became worth a lot less when the [dot.com](http://dot.com) bubble burst, and Yahoo stock went way down. > > Meanwhile Christopher Jaeb, the original founder (as AudioNet), had sold to Cuban for ‘only’ $50 million. ISTR that the sale was for 5.7 billion in stock, but Cuban’s part when he sold it was only about 1 billion. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-obscure-ish-computer-program-made-someone-the-most-money/830776/48 "2019-03-12T22:11:39Z")
One possible candidate might be the development of the early RISC computers created by [ACORN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn_Computers). Was it hardware? software? both? There is a direct line from their early work in the early-mid 80’s to the architecture now used in billions of mobile phones and devices. They became ARM and utterly massive. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-obscure-ish-computer-program-made-someone-the-most-money/830776/49 "2019-03-13T13:37:49Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > One possible candidate might be the development of the early RISC computers created by [ACORN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn_Computers). Was it hardware? software? both? > > There is a direct line from their early work in the early-mid 80’s to the architecture now used in billions of mobile phones and devices. They became ARM and utterly massive. That’s definitely in the running for most influential, but did the ACORN guys become ludicrously rich as a result? Quick googling says they are definitely wealthy, but not Internet mogul wealthy. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-obscure-ish-computer-program-made-someone-the-most-money/830776/50 "2019-03-14T14:48:25Z")
> [@bump](#): > > That’s definitely in the running for most influential, but did the ACORN guys become ludicrously rich as a result? Quick googling says they are definitely wealthy, but not Internet mogul wealthy. Ridiculous wealth? probably not but interesting guys in pivotal roles during the era of real micro explosion. The BBC did an intriguing program about that period called “[Micro Men](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_Men)” which was fun, also I’d highly recommend Francis Spufford’s [“Backroom Boys”](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Backroom-Boys-Secret-Return-British/dp/0571214975). It is about the charming way that some key British tech and engineering projects were carried out. The chapter “the universe in a bottle” covers the development of the game “Elite” and Acorn plus Hauser/Curry et al are obviously featured heavily. ---
**Author:** ![leovanha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c77e96/32.png) [@leovanha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leovanha)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-obscure-ish-computer-program-made-someone-the-most-money/830776/51 "2019-03-15T10:54:52Z")
> [@bump](#): > > SAP is probably one of the biggest ERP providers along with Oracle, and probably even less publicly known- Oracle at least puts their logo on yachts and stuff, while SAP is some weird-ass very quiet German company that nobody knows much about. Hell, I’m aware of SAP, work in a group that deals with it daily, and am familiar with ERP systems, and had to look up what SAP stands for. (“ **S** ysteme, **A** nwendungen, **P** rodukte in der Datenverarbeitung”, or in English, “Systems, Applications and Products for Data Processing”) Despite what Wikipedia says, it’s: Im Jahr 1972 gründen fünf ehemalige IBM-Mitarbeiter das Unternehmen „SAP Systemanalyse und Programmentwicklung“. ---
**Author:** ![Hoopy\_Frood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoopy_frood/32/8452_2.png) [@Hoopy\_Frood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoopy_Frood)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-obscure-ish-computer-program-made-someone-the-most-money/830776/52 "2019-03-15T20:19:30Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Hasso Plattner, one of the founders of SAP, is worth about $13 billion, and I’ll bet that few people have even heard of SAP. (On the other hand, this and other mentions aren’t one single computer program but whole companies.) And many who’ve heard of it and work with it wish they haven’t. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-obscure-ish-computer-program-made-someone-the-most-money/830776/53 "2019-03-15T20:27:13Z")
> [@leovanha](#): > > Despite what Wikipedia says, it’s: > > Im Jahr 1972 gründen fünf ehemalige IBM-Mitarbeiter das Unternehmen „SAP Systemanalyse und Programmentwicklung“. I have it on good authority that it actually stands for **S** uck **A** ll **P** rofits. (Also that Colgate is just the toothpaste division of SAP) 😉 ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-obscure-ish-computer-program-made-someone-the-most-money/830776/54 "2019-03-15T20:27:33Z")
> [@Teuton](#): > > Did anyone ever buy mIRC? I did. I always “buy” freeware if I use it a lot. It’s the right thing to do. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-obscure-ish-computer-program-made-someone-the-most-money/830776/55 "2019-03-26T14:21:29Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > Ridiculous wealth? probably not but interesting guys in pivotal roles during the era of real micro explosion. The recent rise of ARM is incredibly interesting to me. The fact that ARM is a massive threat to Intel a solid 25+ years after that war was largely considered over is fascinating. It’s easier to picture a world ten years from now without Intel than a world without ARM, and that’s bonkers. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-obscure-ish-computer-program-made-someone-the-most-money/830776/56 "2019-03-26T15:34:25Z")
> [@MDfive21](#): > > Mark Cuban got 5.7B from yahoo for [broadcast.com](http://broadcast.com) in 1999. not sure if that passes the obscure test, but i sure didn’t know about it Is a website unique “software”? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-obscure-ish-computer-program-made-someone-the-most-money/830776/57 "2019-03-26T15:42:55Z")
> [@Clawdio](#): > > I have a hard time recognizing SAP as “obscure”. > > Its just an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software. Think of it as a much more complex Quickbooks. If you’re running a business out of your garage you maybe buy a quickbooks license. If you have millions to spend on implementing the software that your business uses to record financial transactions and track other business data, you buy SAP (or one of it’s competitors). > > To be fair, i work in corporate finance/accounting, so maybe i’m biased. > > To me, obscure is more like software people use everyday that does stuff in the background so most end users don’t even know they’re using it. “Just”. It’s the benchmark ERP; R/3 and S/4 (their flagship products) are among the few ERPs which are actually integrated and not a bunch of different programs yelling to each other. As a company, SAP is a bit like BASF: not that known to people who have no contact with their specific industry but their logo is actually in a lot of places (including, yes, yachts) and if you’re in that industry you definitely know who they are. Lots of people use their software daily without realizing they do: for them it’s just “the computer”. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-obscure-ish-computer-program-made-someone-the-most-money/830776/58 "2019-03-27T20:19:51Z")
I’ll take a guess and say Qualcomm’s spread spectrum stuff is the least well known software that made the most money. But Qualcomm’s value is partly hardware as well. The answer may also lie in vertical markets. Manufacturing, finance, retail… There is software out there that has massive sales and no one other than factory managers or engineers has ever heard of it. Some of it comes from very small companies. In my field we sold factory automation, control, and efficiency software. The market is worth billions per year. Lots of people started software packages then sold out for big bucks to large companies like GE or Siemens. Another candidate might be the original spreadsheet, or perhaps Lotus 123. But while it is obscure now, it sure wasn’t back in the day. AutoCad was written by a couple of guys, and it’s been huge for decades. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-obscure-ish-computer-program-made-someone-the-most-money/830776/59 "2019-03-27T20:29:50Z")
I just remembered [Daylight Chemical Information Systems](http://www.daylight.com/smiles/index.html) and their cheminformatics packages. They are a very small company, but their tools got picked up by some very big players and made them a lot of money. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2019, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-obscure-ish-computer-program-made-someone-the-most-money/830776/60 "2019-03-28T11:53:30Z")
Taking the thread title and this line “Can you identify computer programs/applications that might be less readily familiar to non-techies, but generated tremendous wealth?” from the OP literally it would have to do doubt be [86-DOS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/86-DOS) (aka QDOS). The MS-DOS predecessor that MS bought rights to off a small time company to present to IBM as “their” OS for the new IBM PC. Billions ensued. But not for the little company. A place called Seattle Computer Products. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-obscure-ish-computer-program-made-someone-the-most-money/830776.md?page=2)