McDonnell Douglas Information Services has re-united all the licences for the Pro-IV applications generator with the purchase of the assets of Pro Computer Sciences for an undisclosed sum. Pro-IV was conceived by Pro Computer founder Suchil Garg when he was working for DTA in Hawaii, but by 1981 four firms, including McDonnell Douglas’s Microdata had taken licences to it. The last retained the Pick licence when Pro Computer reacquired the other three. Pro-IV is now available on IBM and ICL mainframes, DEC and Honeywell minis and Unix and Xenix micros but the cost of developing all these versions led to a cash crunch just before Christmas. Garg predicted in September 1985 that Pro Computer would be running at between $10m and $12m by the end of 1986 (CI No 277). The UK Prolab Plc end had ?1.7m sales last year. Suchil Garg will enhance Pro-IV under an initial two-year contract.
