Madge Networks

Corporate history

One-time horseback riding instructor, Robert Madge entered the computer industry with Britain's Intelligent Software Ltd., designing computer-driven chess games. The company's involvement in developing the Enterprise microcomputer saw Madge in the role of project manager for that product. In 1986 Madge sought to set up his own business, opening shop on his family's Buckinghamshire farm.

Initial years

The Ethernet field was already crowded with competitors by the mid-1980s, where most of the money had been made by 3COM in the adapter market with their 3C509 series, then swiftly moving on to the Ethernet switching. Other companies avoided the Token Ring market in preference to IBM. Meanwhile, Madge developed a profitable business operating in IBM's shadow. Madge Networks introduced its first Token Ring products by 1987. The company quickly opened up a second headquarters in San Jose, placing the company closer to the heart of the worldwide computer industry, with advantageous results: the company's US customers believed it to be a large British company, while its UK customers saw it as a successful US company.

Robert Madge led his company to extending the technology, introducing new products, such as the Smart Ringnode in 1989 and the company's Fastmac, and Fastmac+ technology in 1990, bringing it to the forefront of Token Ring research and development. By the early 1990s the company had outpaced even IBM's development efforts, with the larger company recommending Madge Network's products to its own customers. An early boost came from the licensing of Madge's Fastmac technology to Cisco Systems in 1990.

The company's revenues for 1990 reached $18 million. One year later, Madge's revenues nearly doubled, to $34 million. The rise of computer networking, however, had only just begun. By the following year Madge's revenues would near $100 million. At the end of 1992 the company had managed to increase its share of the Token Ring market to seven per cent – still minor compared with IBM's 76 per cent share. Until the early 1990s, Madge had been focusing on producing adapter cards, which were fitted to individual computers to connect them to the network. The company's expanding product line soon included the hubs and switching components needed to route data and allow the adapter cards to communicate.