 | |
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer networking |
| Founded | 1985; 40 years ago (1985) inCambridge, Massachusetts |
| Founder |
|
| Defunct | 1998; 27 years ago (1998) |
| Fate | Acquired byIntel |
| Website | shiva.com at theWayback Machine (archived 1998-02-04) |
Shiva Corporation was a company that specialized incomputer networking and associated equipment, in particularremote access products. The company was founded in 1985, inCambridge, Massachusetts,United States. Shiva was co-founded byMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) graduates Frank Slaughter[1] and byDaniel J. Schwinn, the current president and CEO ofAvidyne Corporation.[2]
Shiva added to its product portfolio with the acquisition ofFastPath, an AppleTalk/Ethernet Gateway from Novell Inc. in 1990.[3]
Shiva acquired theBritish network products companySpider Systems in 1995, which became Shiva Europe Ltd.[4]
In 1996, Shiva acquired theCupertino, California-based remote networking software supplier AirSoft Inc for around 65 million USD.[5] This acquisition gave Shiva AirSoft's Powerburst software, which aimed to improve remote-access performance (speed and accuracy) by caching files on the client and validating data in the cache prior to fulfilling subsequent access requests.[6] AirSoft's president at the time was Jagdeep Singh, who went on to co-foundQuantumScape in 2010.
Users of 16-bitInternet Explorer onWindows 3 with dial-up connections saw the Shiva name regularly, as the company provided part of the dial-upTCP/IP stack for Internet Explorer versions 3, 4 and 5.[7]
In October 1998 Shiva was acquired byIntel[8] and became part of the Intel Network Products Division. Intel's acquisition of Shiva took place during a lengthy class-action lawsuit in which it was alleged that Shiva hid information concerning the deterioration of the company.[9] The lawsuit was settled in 1999 with Shiva agreeing to pay 4.35 million USD.[9]
In November 2002 it was acquired by Simple Access Inc., which adopted the Shiva Corporation identity.[10] A year later, the company was acquired by Mernet Secure Network. Mernet were subsequently acquired byEicon Networks in February 2004.[11] Since 2006, Eicon are now known asDialogic Corporation.