Remote access products and technology company Shiva Corp made Nick Felisiak so wealthy when it bought Spider Systems Ltd from him and his four co-founders two years ago that he has the money to buy back Spider’s software technology licensing business for an undisclosed cash sum. Bedford, Massachusetts-based Shiva, which paid some $70m for the Edinburgh, Scotland company – formed by refugees from ICL Plc in the mid-1980s – in 1995 (CI No 2,685), decided that the software licensing side of Spider’s business is not core to its remote access focus, and has sold it to its founding technical director and software architect Felisiak, who takes most of the original software business team, and the Spider name, with him. Spider Software Ltd director and general manager Dave Gibb says the new company will continue to support its 120-odd OEM customers, to whom it licenses its portable TCP/IP, X.25, ISDN, Frame Relay and Open Systems Interconnection technology, and will maintain and enhance existing technology as well as moving into new areas. Shiva will remain an important customer, he said. The new Spider currently employs just 16 people, but aims to grow to 25 by year-end.
