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The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail
by Clayton M. Christensen
Hardcover - 256 pages (June 1997)
Avg. Customer Review:

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Strikingitrich.com (Striking It Rich.com): Profiles of 23 Incredibly Successful Websites You've Probably Never Heard Of
by Jaclyn Easton
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Insurance.com
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Bi$Net97
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Bi$Net96
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A Report of an Evening with Kinsley, Negroponte, Polese, Bateson, Janney & Lanier at Hartford's Bushnell Memorial

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The Testament
by John Grisham
Hardcover (March 1999)
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"Profitable the past six quarters, the Boston-area maker of data mining and mathematics software has endured a share price that, well, just doesn't add up."
Thom Calandra, CBS StockWatch, Jan. 27, 1999

Background and History of MATH

Those who saw the Film "Good Will Hunting" have some taste of the passion of the global community of scholars and technologists who focus on higher mathematics, data mining and statistics. This community feeds directly into the expanding world of commercial technology, financial analysis and new electronic commerce solutions. Its global center could be the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge Massachusetts. Imagine a software and online services company dedicated to this community and based in Cambridge, and run by a CEO with a background managing consumer software sales at Lotus and Texas Instruments. Now imagine that it is publicly traded, profitable and selling for a few times sales. Stop imagining and look at Mathsoft, Inc. (NASDAQ: MATH).

Founded in 1984, this obscure Massachusetts company provides a broad line of technical calculation and analytical software for business and academia. Their software enables instant electronic exchange of technical calculations and exploratory data analyses across global organizations. Mathsoft reports over one million users of Mathcad®, StudyWorks®, S-PLUS®, StatServer® and Axum® software products, including professionals at more than 90% of the Fortune 1,000 and over 500 government institutions, plus students and faculty at over 2,000 campuses and universities. Mathsoft reports heavy investment in its data mining operation in Seattle.

At the Mathsoft Web Store, one can purchase a variety of software, its own and that of third parties. In November, Mathsoft announced the revamping of the Web Store, including the selection of Digital River technology for online delivery of software with increased security. In January, Mathsoft announced its association with Amazon.com under which it will add a selection of over 100 technical books (for which MATH receives a commission of 5% to 15% on each sale through their store).

In an January 4 press release, Mathsoft reported a doubling of its online sales, compared to the year earlier period, and that they were putting increasing focus on online sales of software, books and its line of electronic books that interface with its math software. For example, a recent new release in the store was the Mathcad® Expert Solver, which "increases Mathcad's capacity for optimization routines, quadratic programming and higher capacity problem solving," according to a January 21 press release.

StudyWorks! is a student-oriented application that Mathsoft describes: "Available in Mathematics, Science, and Schools editions, StudyWorks is the only complete resource for learning and exploring math and science. The new products build on StudyWorks’ innovative, three-step approach to learning with extensive new content and hundreds of additional practice problems." StudyWorks is interlinked with reference materials on the Web and includes an icon to link to the Mathsoft Collaboratory, an online discussion and help community of math scholars and professional engineers, technologists and statistical theoreticians.

A visit to the Mathsoft Collaboratory revealed an active international online community of math students and professionals collaborating, conversing and sharing files created with Mathsoft products in a variety of subject forums about various fields of mathmatics, statistics and technology. Besides talk, math enthusiasts create and upload math driven animations created with Mathsoft products. As an example, click here to check out a Mathsoft-generated example of an "optimistic sales forecast" in .avi format.

The Mathcad Explorer Academic Program allows educational institutions and organizations to offer at their sites a free download of Mathcad Explorer, which allows the viewing and interacting of Mathcad worksheets and electronic books. Wide distribution of free reader software tends to increase the market for sales of the creator/editor versions of the application.

Recent Financial Results

Future Plans:

International Appeal
In an interview reported by Dow Jones, Mathsoft CEO Digate forecast 20% sales growth and "said that online sales growth occurred even though the only products MathSoft has been selling are for North America. He said that international sales should boost sales further, based on the fact that half the downloads of free trial packages have been for overseas. * * * Digate said the company's focus in the next year will be boosting revenue over its Website by encouraging MathCad's one-million users to regularly visit the site, and selling more products on it." Source: SI post

Mathematics has been regarded for millenia as "The Universal Language." "Very few people, if any, are literate in all the world's tongues—English, Chinese, Arabic, Bengali, and so on. But virtually all of us possess the ability to be "literate" in the shared language of math. This math literacy is called numeracy, and it is this shared language of numbers that connects us with people across continents and through time. It is what links ancient scholars and medieval merchants, astronauts and artists, peasants and presidents." -- Math, the Univeral Language. the Annerberg/CBP Project Exhibits Collection

Mathsoft: The Global Portal for Math Scholars?

Mathsoft is the subject of an active message thread on Silicon Investor and another on Yahoo! Finance.

Do your own research before buying any security.

The Net offers tremendous opportunities for those who can appreciate the "increasing returns" economics of networks, the power of community, and its opportunity to eliminate the costs of intermediaries and manual hand-offs in the distribution chain. Many studies have pointed to online niche communities as offering exceptional suitability for marketing and transactions on the Net.

This focus page will be archived at nnarc-math.html and may be edited in the future. Check in at Net Nuggets from time to time. The information contained herein is believed to come from reliable sources, but no warranty of accuracy is expressed or implied. The author may own shares of Mathsoft, Inc. purchased on the open market and has never received or been offered any compensation from Mathsoft, Inc. or its employees, agents or affiliates. This article is neither an offer to buy or sell a security and is not intended to constitute financial advice.

If you have verifiable information about this company, its business plan or competitors, you are invited to share it via email with me.

doug.simpson@snet.net

Click on the title or image to buy these now from Amazon:

Lowery's Entrepreneur: The Dimensions of Transferring Your Business
Model to the Internet
$15.99 (20% off)
at Amazon.com

Good Will Hunting
(1997) (VHS: $14.94)
or
In DVD Widescreen Format ($20.99)
Rated:
Not for sale to persons under age 18.
Starring: Robin Williams, Matt Damon, et al.
Director: Gus Van Sant

Rules for Revolutionaries: The Capitalist Manifesto for Creating New Products and Services
by Guy Kawasaki, Michele Moreno (Contributor), Gary Kawasaki
Hardcover - 224 pages 1 Ed edition (January 1999)

Mathsoft sites:
... home page
... Web store
... E-books
... StudyWorks!
... Collaboratory
... Mathcad Explorer
Academic Program

Articles Mentioning Mathsoft:

CBS StockWatch
... "MathSoft CEO says it all adds up" (1/27/99)

Silicon Investor Discussion Forums:
... MATH

MATH at Yahoo Finance:
... Profile
... News
... Messages
... Insider Trades
... EDGAR Filings
... 10K as of 3/98

Other background reading. Click on the title to buy now, online:

Netscape Time
by Jim Clark, Owen Edwards
Hardcover, 304 pages
List Price: $24.95
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Direct from Dell: Strategies That Revolutionized an Industry
by Michael Dell, Catherine Fredman (Contributor)
Hardcover - 288 pages (March 1999)
List Price: $25.00
Amazon: $17.50
Save: $7.50 (30%)

Creating the Virtual Store : Taking Your Web Site from Browsing to Buying
by Magdalena Yesil
Paperback - 364 pages (November 1996)
List Price: $24.95
Our Price: $19.96
You Save: $4.99 (20%)

Net Worth: Shaping Markets When Customers Make the Rules
by John Hagel, Marc Singer, Marc Stinger, John Hagel III
Hardcover - 256 pages (January 1999)
List Price: $24.95
Amazon: $14.97
Save: $9.98 (40%)