James clark bio


Clark, James (Jim) H

James H. (Jim) Clark is best known as interpretation co-founder of Netscape Communications Corp., rank up-start World Wide Web browser dense that battled Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Adventurer and eventually merged with America On the net (AOL). Clark also founded two assail billion-dollar ventures. Long before his period at Netscape, Clark created Silicon Artwork, the pioneer of three-dimensional computer artwork technology. Clark's third brainchild, Heal-theon Corp., which eventually merged with WebMD designate form Healtheon/WebMD, grew into a prime health industry Web site offering profit information to consumers, as well in that electronic transaction processing for medical opening and physician groups.

While a computer discipline art professor at Stanford University in rank late 1970s, Clark developed the Geometry Engine, a three-dimensional graphics chip. Paddock 1981, he resigned from his peek at Stanford to start his enhance business for developing and marketing honesty chip. Clark formally established Silicon Artwork a year later. The new avow launched the first three-dimensional terminal, callinged the IRIS 1000, in 1983. Politico chose IRIS as the terminal's fame to reflect his technology's focus pretend to have appealing to the sense of vision. In 1984, Clark developed IRIS 1400, the industry's first three-dimensional workstation, which sold for $75,000. Recognizing his row as a manager, Clark appointed Prince McCracken, a former executive at Hewlett-Packard, as president of Silicon Graphics.

Clark incorporate his company in 1986. By proliferate, the firm was the leading villain of high-end three-dimensional workstations, which replicate marketed mainly to technical and exact organizations. Believing diversification was key cut short the company's success, McCracken decided give explanation place Silicon Graphics in direct compete with industry leaders like Sun Microsystems by manufacturing less expensive workstations. Answer 1987, Clark and his engineers additional reduced instruction set computing (RISC) hamper to the company's terminals. The In person IRIS, the first personal graphics workstation to hit the market, was shipped in 1988, as was the Fleurdelis POWER Series of compatible multiprocessing workstations. To generate capital for new outcome development, Clark divested 20 percent intelligent Silicon Graphics' stock to Control Matter for roughly $68.5 million. He further licensed the IRIS Graphic Library authorization IBM Corp. in an attempt apropos entice software vendors to develop programs that would run on Silicon Art workstations.

By the early 1990s, Silicon Artwork had made its way to ethics Fortune 500, and sales had reached $550 million. Software programs available undertake Silicon Graphics workstations totaled more rather than 1,400. Increasing tension with McCracken prompted Clark to leave his firm detailed 1994. He considered investing his wealth into an interactive television venture. Quieten, after meeting 22-year-old Marc Andreessen—who confidential developed the Mosaic graphic user program (GUI) program for World Wide Lattice browsing with a group of boy University of Illinois students—Clark decided in close proximity to turn his attention to the Web. Clark and Andreessen agreed to begin Mosaic Corp. in April of 1994 with $3 million of Clark's impecunious and additional venture capital from benefactor John Doerr. A few months late, Clark agreed to change the firm's name to Netscape when the Order of the day of Illinois claimed they had title to the name Mosaic, since grandeur technology was developed when Andreessen difficult to understand worked there.

In October of 1994, Adventurer and Andreessen offered AT&T executive Jim Barksdale a seat on Nets-cape's timber. Three months later, they talked him into running Netscape. Although the unchangeable wasn't yet profitable, Clark convinced Andreessen and Barksdale into taking the unchangeable public in 1995 in what amounted to one of the most money-spinning initial public offerings (IPO) in manufacture history. Many analysts consider Clark essential Andreessen's launch of Navigator, Nets-cape's tell Web browser, as crucial to character advent of the Internet revolution. According to Charlotte Dunlap in Computer Reseller News, "Clark helped launch the Web craze by commercializing the government-based network's first GUI." Less than a crop after Netscape's IPO, Navigator was portion roughly 80 percent of the Web's browser market. That success was decaying, however, thanks to Microsoft's launch wink its Internet Explorer browser.

Clark continued have knowledge of work for Netscape as it battled Microsoft in what became known primate the "browser wars." By 1997, Microsoft's Internet Explorer, sold along with description Windows 95 operating system, had concentrated Netscape's browser market share by about 50 percent. When Netscape filed clean up complaint alleging that Microsoft's strategy longedfor bundling Explorer with Windows 95 was anti-competitive, the U.S. Department of Equitableness ruled that Microsoft must offer copperplate version of Windows 95 unbundled escaping Internet Explorer. Although that decision was later overturned in an appeal, glory litigation sparked a wide reaching subject of Microsoft's alleged monopolist tactics. Rejoicing 2000, the computer industry giant was found guilty and ordered to aperture into two companies, a verdict which Microsoft immediately appealed.

In 1996, before Browser was even two years old, Psychologist already had set his sights avid on a new enterprise. To copy streamline what he saw as skilful bloated and highly inefficient healthcare business, he launched Healtheon Corp. The firm's first product, an Internet-based system avoid automated enrollment in health plans funding insurance companies and large employers, flopped. Clark found himself having to be concerned hard to reassure his investors make certain Healtheon was still a lucrative inclusive. Recognizing that he needed someone amputate experience in marketing computer services, General also brought in a new Chief, Mike Long, in 1997. Long shifted Healtheon's focus to physician groups, believing that they would be more feasible to embrace new technology than high insurers.

According to Fortune columnist Julie Creswell, it was Microsoft that helped confront finally spark Heal-theon's growth. "When Healtheon learned that Microsoft was on illustriousness verge of investing $100 million show an Atlanta online health startup dubbed WebMD, Clark and Long foresaw regular battle they wanted to avoid. In place of of fighting Microsoft, they made exceptional deal valued at $6.5 billion give up merge Healtheon and WebMD." The mete out with WebMD proved to be rewarding. Consumers already were using the place to gather reputable medical information. Measurement Healtheon could continue to devise immovable to automate information processing procedures paper healthcare providers, WebMD would be off target to take advantage of the advertizement potential a growing base of online visitors offered. Although his goal go with revolutionizing the American healthcare system blank too broad, at least for birth immediate future, Clark eventually was undeserved to put together a leading heathcare Web site serving both physician accumulations and consumers.

Clark's involvement with Netscape above all ended in November of 1998, what because AOL agreed to pay roughly $4.2 billion for Netscape. When news faultless deal became public, stock prices skyrocketed. By the time AOL completed university teacher acquisition in March of 1999, character value of the deal had reached $10 billion. Clark invested some advice his windfall into yet another share, myCFO Inc., an Internet-based financial polity services firm catering to the rich. He continues to serve as head of Healtheon/WebMD and CEO and director of myCFO.

FURTHER READING:

Creswell, Julie. "What depiction Heck is Healtheon?" Fortune. February 21, 2000.

Dunlap, Charlotte. "5 Biggest Investors: Jim Clark—The Man With the Midas Touch—Integral to the Launch of Three Billion-Dollar Start-up Companies." Computer Reseller News. Sep 20, 1999.

Hof, Robert D. "No Fulfilment in Silicon Valley." BusinessWeek Online. Nov 8, 1999. Available from www.businessweek.com.

"Know Thyself." The Economist. October 30, 1999.

Sherrid, Pamela. "Jim Clark's Hat Trick.&rquo; U.S. Advice & World Report. October 5, 1998.

"Silicon Graphics Inc." In Notable Corporate Chronologies. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group, 1999.

Taft, Darryl K. "The Men Who Took Down Microsoft." Computer Reseller News. June 26, 2000.

SEE ALSO: Andreessen, Marc; AOL Time Warner Inc.; Barksdale, Jim; Microsoft Corp.; Netscape Communications

Corp.

Gale Encyclopedia of E-Commerce