Mathematica

Short description: Defunct American consulting and computer software firm

For the Wolfram's Mathematica software package, see Software:Wolfram Mathematica.

Mathematica was founded by Princeton University professors in 1969 and had a multi-faceted history.[1]

* It did consulting work, mostly "to develop mathematical models for marketing decision making."
* a leading developer of state lottery systems
* developer of RAMIS

## Contents

* 1 Early day participants
* 2 Divisions
* 2.1 Mathematica Products Group
* 2.2 Mathematica Policy Research
* 2.3 MathTech
* 3 References

## Early day participants

* Oskar Morgenstern, economist; one of the company's founders (1969)
* Tibor Fabian, Mathematica's Hungarian-born president (1980s)
* William Baumol and William Bowen: economists, early day participants

## Divisions

* Mathematica Policy Research - the only unit still carrying the Mathematica name.
* Mathematica Products Group - best known for developing RAMIS
* MathTech, the company's technical and economic consulting group - "research projects and computer systems other than Ramis."[1]

A quarter of a century after Mathematica's founding, it "was largely owned by a group of professors in Mathematics and Economics at Princeton University ... as this group aged, they opted to cash out by selling." The result was a 3-way split: two units became employee-owned companies and another was sold several times.

### Mathematica Products Group

In 1982, Mathematica Products Group's RAMIS was described as "nonprocedural" and "bordering on artificial intelligence."[2] This unit of Mathematica was purchased by Martin Marietta Corporation in 1983,[3] and, eventually[4] by Computer Associates.

The RAMIS product sold well, initially on mainframes,[5] subsequently on PCs.

### Mathematica Policy Research

The Mathematica Policy Research (MPR) unit's strength was in "social experiments and surveys."[1] In 1983 MPR reported "a major survey assignment for the American Medical Association."

In 1986 it became a separate, employee-owned company.

### MathTech

Like MPR, in 1986 MathTech became an employee-owned company. Known today as Mathtech, Inc.,[6] it was described by The New York Times as "a Washington-area educational consulting firm [7]

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 The New York Times. February 22, 1983. https://www.nytimes.com/1983/02/22/business/mathematica-s-shift-into-software-field.html.
2. ↑ "Mathematica, Inc.". February 24, 1982. http://digitalcollections.library.cmu.edu/awweb/awarchive?type=file&item=61054.
3. ↑ "RAMIS II, PC Unison". Computerworld: p. 6. September 9, 1985. https://books.google.com/books?id=fzlfAWYHBpQC.
4. ↑ including after ownership by On-Line Software International
5. ↑ including 40 AT&T licenses, and other known-name companies
6. ↑ "Mathtech Inc. was originally formed as the Strategy and Consulting arm of Princeton-based professional services firm Mathematica, Inc." "History". http://www.mathtechinc.com/ABOUT-HISTORY.
7. ↑ James Barron (November 8, 1987). "Learning The Facts of Life". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/08/education/learning-the-facts-of-life.html.

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