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Spyglass

Logo: Spyglass Inc., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

Former Internet software company

Spyglass, Inc. was an Internet software company. It was founded in 1990, in Champaign, Illinois, as an offshoot of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, and later moved to Naperville, Illinois. Spyglass was created to commercialize and support technologies from the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).2 It ceased to exist in 2000.1 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1990Founded1
  • Industrysoftware industry1
  • HeadquartersChampaign1

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Spyglass, Inc. was an Internet software company. It was founded in 1990, in Champaign, Illinois, as an offshoot of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, and later moved to Naperville, Illinois. Spyglass was created to commercialize and support technologies from the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). It focused on data visualization tools, such as graphing packages and 3D rendering engines.2

Products and brands

Spyglass created and marketed a commercially supported web server for Unix and Windows NT, variously called Spyglass Server and Server SDK. The product was announced in March 1995 and became available in July 1995. Like the Netscape server that was already on the market, the Spyglass Server included an application programming interface that allowed server-side applications to run in the server's process. The two server platforms differed in their approach to security, with Spyglass using the Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol (SHTTP), while Netscape used its own Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). Spyglass did not offer their server as a retail product, instead licensing it in volume to original equipment manufacturers, as it did with its browser. The largest licensee was Oracle Corporation.

From Wikipedia’s article on Spyglass, Inc., shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Acquisitions

On March 26, 2000, OpenTV revealed plans to acquire Spyglass in a $2.5 billion stock swap. OpenTV said it planned to use Spyglass' Prism server software with its own interactive TV services, and OpenTV would continue the company's expansion in the mobile browser market. The deal was finalized later that year.

OpenTV, in turn, was fully acquired by the Kudelski Group on March 29, 2010.

From Wikipedia’s article on Spyglass, Inc., shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Timeline

  1. 2000Dissolved Dissolved1
  2. 1990Founded Founded1

Sources

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