OpenMarket
Encyclopedia
Open Market was an ecommerce startup
, founded in Cambridge
, Massachusetts
in early 1994. It went public in 1996 on the Nasdaq
exchange under the symbol OMKT, as one of the first ecommerce IPOs. It relocated to Burlington, Massachusetts
in early 1998.
In 1999, Open Market acquired Future Tense, founded in 1995, to combine its ecommerce software with Future Tense's content management system
.
Open Market was later acquired by Divine
in 2001 for about $59 million. Divine later filed for bankruptcy in early 2003.
FatWire
Software acquired Open Market's content management business from the Divine bankruptcy. FatWire has extended the Open Market software and currently services Open Market's original content management customer base.
Soverain Software acquired Open Market's ecommerce assets, including the TRANSACT product.
Open Market also invented FastCGI
, a high-performance variant of the CGI interface. FastCGI was first implemented in Open Market's Web server products, but versions have since been developed for many other Web servers.
Startup company
A startup company or startup is a company with a limited operating history. These companies, generally newly created, are in a phase of development and research for markets...
, founded in Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
in early 1994. It went public in 1996 on the Nasdaq
NASDAQ
The NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of...
exchange under the symbol OMKT, as one of the first ecommerce IPOs. It relocated to Burlington, Massachusetts
Burlington, Massachusetts
Burlington is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 24,498 at the 2010 census.- History :It is believed that Burlington takes its name from the English town of Bridlington, however this has never been confirmed....
in early 1998.
In 1999, Open Market acquired Future Tense, founded in 1995, to combine its ecommerce software with Future Tense's content management system
Content management system
A content management system is a system providing a collection of procedures used to manage work flow in a collaborative environment. These procedures can be manual or computer-based...
.
Open Market was later acquired by Divine
Divine (corporation)
divine inc, was a Chicago-based company that started out as an Internet Incubator named divine interVentures. The company was founded by Andrew 'Flip' Filipowski in 1999....
in 2001 for about $59 million. Divine later filed for bankruptcy in early 2003.
FatWire
FatWire
FatWire Software is a privately held company selling web content management system software.-History :* 1996: Established by Mark Fasciano, Ari Kahn and John Murcott it was named FutureTense...
Software acquired Open Market's content management business from the Divine bankruptcy. FatWire has extended the Open Market software and currently services Open Market's original content management customer base.
Soverain Software acquired Open Market's ecommerce assets, including the TRANSACT product.
Products & Technology
Open Market developed a number of software products, including:- Open Market Web Server. This was one of the first commercially available Web (HTTP) servers, and the first commercial product with a highly scalable threading architecture. The Secure Web Server variant added support for Secure HTTP (S-HTTP) and SSL.
- TRANSACT. Open Market's eCommerce product. Notable for the use of cryptography to support digital offers and digital receipts with useful properties for ecommerce applications.
- OM Express. an early offline web browserOffline readerAn offline reader is computer software that downloads e-mail, newsgroup posts or web pages, making them available when the computer is offline: not connected to the Internet or, in the late 20th century, bulletin board systems...
.
- OM Axcess. a centralized access management tool for websites.
- Open Market e-Business Suite. the WCMWeb content management systemA web content management system is a software system that provides website authoring, collaboration, and administration tools designed to allow users with little knowledge of web programming languages or markup languages to create and manage website content with relative ease...
Software acquired from FutureTense and greatly extended.
Open Market also invented FastCGI
FastCGI
FastCGI is a protocol for interfacing interactive programs with a web server. FastCGI is a variation on the earlier Common Gateway Interface ; FastCGI's main aim is to reduce the overhead associated with interfacing the web server and CGI programs, allowing a server to handle more web page...
, a high-performance variant of the CGI interface. FastCGI was first implemented in Open Market's Web server products, but versions have since been developed for many other Web servers.