Computer Applications, Inc.

Computer Applications, Inc. was founded in 1960 and its headquarters were located in New York City. The company soon had additional offices in San Diego, California, and Washington, D.C. Eventually they would have the most services bureaus of any computer firm on the East Coast of the United States. The company also operated computer center activities for parts of the federal government; Following a couple of profitable years, in 1965 the company's stock was listed on the American Stock Exchange under the symbol CPD. == Prominence ==

Of those other computer software firms that started up around the same time, only a few others grew to be large as Computer Applications; they included Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), Computer Usage Company (CUC), and C-E-I-R. Eventually CAI became one of the "big five" software contracting houses in the United States, with the others being CSC, CUC, System Development Corporation, and Planning Research Corporation. Also in the same midtown Manhattan building was a competitor of sorts, Advanced Computer Techniques, and at a time when finding programming talent was an exercise in creativity, that company's executives poached several Computer Applications programmers whom they happened to see riding the elevators holding a deck of punched cards. Another company Computer Applications competed against in the programming services area was Applied Data Research (before that company became better known for its software products). By 1967, Computer Applications, Inc. had around 2,100 employees. One of those was in Sacramento, California. In this era the valuations of software and computer services companies increased greatly, Besides being a computer services provider, it also had units that were engaged in market research; direct mail; and book distribution activities. == End ==

The fairly mild recession of 1969–1970 in the United States was associated with a steeper downturn within the computer industry. While other companies failed during this period, Computer Applications' demise was especially rapid. In October 1970, the company petitioned the U.S. bankruptcy courts to be able to file a reorganization plan. The reorganization request was denied, and with liabilities essentially double those of its assets and its bank accounts seized by a creditor, Computer Applications, Inc. could not continue. for the purposes of liquidation. In many respects, Computer Applications, Inc. would be little remembered; as per computer science historian Martin Campbell-Kelly, writing in 2003, "its history has largely been lost". ==References==