{{Short description|Business Basic variety}} right|thumb|Terminal for a MAI Basic/Four minicomputer '''Basic/Four''' is a variety of Business Basic which originally ran on computers of the same name introduced in 1971. The company that produced the system, Management Assistance, Inc., was later known as '''Basic/Four Corporation''', '''MAI Basic Four, Inc.''', and '''MAI Basic Four Information Systems'''.<ref>{{cite news | author1 = | title = MAI Canada Ltd. | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=1xIiAQAAMAAJ | work = CIPS Magazine | publisher = Canadian Information Processing Society | page = | date = 1971 | access-date = 2023-02-03 | quote = MAI Canada Ltd. will be showing its first product, a new computer system designated Basic/Four. }}</ref> Basic/Four set the pattern for the business BASIC market, with similar products appearing on other minicomputer systems, and later, microcomputers like the Apple III. It remained a popular product into the early 1980s, when increasingly powerful micros replaced it, and MAI turned to selling pre-packaged Basic/Four like accounting software.
Basic/Four Corporation was created as a subsidiary of Management Assistance, Inc. in Irvine, California in 1971. Basic/Four initially sold small business minicomputers that were assembled from Microdata Corporation CPUs, but in 1976 they began selling their own 16-bit CPU designs. Over the next three years they introduced a series of models of these designs, the 200 through 730, with various configurations of memory, terminal servers and hard drive. By the end of 1978 they had approximately 6000 systems in the field in total.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://ftpmirror.your.org/pub/misc/bitsavers/pdf/datapro/datapro_reports_70s-90s/Basic_Four/M11-088-10_7902_Basic_Four.pdf |title=Basic Four Business Computers |magazine=Datapro |date=February 1979}}</ref>
Basic Four was one of the first commercially available business BASIC interpreters. The computers ran an operating system with the BASIC interpreter integrated, known as BOSS. The BASIC interpreter was written in TREE-META.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/questions/16071/what-were-the-first-basic-interpreters-to-be-programmed-in-high-level-languages/16081#16081 |accessdate=2020-09-06|title=Programming - What were the first BASIC interpreters to be programmed in high-level languages?}}</ref>
[[File:Tandy 2000 Ad, BYTE, July 1984.png|thumb|1984 ad co-marketing "MAI/Basic Four" software with the Tandy 2000 personal computer]] The takeover of the low-end and midrange market by the IBM PC during the mid-1980s led to a crash in sales of MAI's 16-bit designs. In 1985, Wall Street financier Bennett S. LeBow purchased the company after it had experienced significant operating financial losses.<ref>{{cite magazine |first=Kathleen |last=Burton |title=LeBow vows steady course after MAI housecleaning |magazine=Computerworld |date=18 March 1985 |page=82}}</ref> In the mid-1980s, the company released accounting software for third-party microcomputers, and in 1988 it released its own 80286-based workstation.<ref>{{cite magazine |first=Julie |last=Webber |title=MAI Introduces 286 Family of Workstations |magazine=InfoWorld |date=8 August 1988 |page=28}}</ref> The Basic4 system was utilized by many small banks and credit unions.
In 1988, LeBow used the company as a platform for an unsuccessful attempted hostile takeover of much larger Prime Computer.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE0D8133CF937A15752C1A96E948260 |title=COMPANY NEWS; MAI Basic Pursues Prime Computer |agency=Associated Press |date=November 24, 1988 |work=New York Times |accessdate=April 12, 2011}}</ref> In 1990, the company changed its name to MAI Systems Corporation and changed its business to be a system integrator instead of a combined hardware and software manufacturer, reselling third-party computers but installing their own customer-specific software system. <ref>{{cite news |url=http://articles.latimes.com/keyword/mai-basic-four-inc |title=Stories about MAI |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |accessdate=9 June 2017 |archive-date=25 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140825001834/http://articles.latimes.com/keyword/mai-basic-four-inc |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref>
MAI Systems Corporation became a wholly owned subsidiary of Softbrands Inc. in 2006.
== See also == * ''MAI Systems Corp. v. Peak Computer, Inc.''
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20070701060836/http://www.answers.com/topic/mai-systems-corporation?cat=biz-fin History of MAI] *[http://www.obsoletecomputermuseum.org/mai/ M.A.I. S10 Basic Four microcomputer system description] *[http://www.ardiehl.de/basicfour/ Pictures and descriptions of a few different Basic Four computers]\
Category:1971 establishments in California Category:2006 disestablishments in California Category:American companies established in 1971 Category:American companies disestablished in 2006 Category:BASIC interpreters Category:Computer companies established in 1971 Category:Computer companies disestablished in 2006 Category:Defunct computer companies of the United States Category:Defunct computer hardware companies Category:Defunct computer companies based in California