Applicon

Applicon, Incorporated was one of the first manufacturers of Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing systems. It was founded in 1969 in Bedford, Massachusetts by Fontaine Richardson, who earned a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Illinois in 1968. During the 1970s and early 1980s, the company had its headquarters and R&D facility in Burlington, MA, while their manufacturing facility was in Billerica, MA. Applicon was acquired by Schlumberger in 1980, at which point Richardson left the company. At the time, Applicon had annual revenues of over $100 million. In 1986, Applicon and separately acquired Manufacturing Data Systems, Inc. were combined into the Schlumberger CAD/CAM division and had their main office in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Schlumberger sold the division to Gore Enterprises in 1993, and in turn Gores sold it in 1999 to UGS Corp., a 1996 spin-off of Electronic Data Systems, which was later acquired by Siemens AG.