Internet mail server startup Sendmail Inc plans significant expansion into Asian markets. To that end, the company has announced strategic partnerships with ASCII Network Technology (ASCII NT) Inc, Trans Cosmos Inc and TurboLinux Inc, formerly Pacific High Tech. Taken together, the deals are worth an estimated $10m.
ASCII NT used to distribute MetaInfo’s Sendmail for NT product until Sendmail Inc itself acquired that business from MetaInfo. The Japanese distributor will now distribute Sendmail for NT on Sendmail Inc’s behalf. Meanwhile, Trans Cosmos will distribute Sendmail Pro to the Unix market and TurboLinux will distribute Sendmail Pro for Linux. We view the Japanese market as a critical component in successfully growing our business internationally, explained president and chief executive officer Greg Olsen.
Eric Allman, chief technology officer of Sendmail Inc, wrote the first version of the sendmail software eighteen years ago to route messages between the UC Berkeley computer systems and ARPAnet. It is estimated that more than 75% of the internet’s mail servers now run sendmail. Allman founded Sendmail Inc in March, 1998 to add professional versions of the software aimed at businesses to the widely-used open source options.
