Software To Link Mainframes And Pcs Became A Business Necessity

BELLEVUE - People thought Frank Pritt was crazy, quitting his job to start some sort of computer business in his Eastside living room. Several hundred million dollars later, they call him a pioneer.

Pritt founded Attachmate Corp. in 1983 and has built it into the world's sixth-largest software-development company. Attachmate has grown from 725 employees in 1992 to 2,200 today. And it has made Pritt one of the richest people in the country.

Pritt carved out a niche back when IBM began to make the first personal computers. He figured companies would want to connect their mainframes to their new PCs and that he could create the software to do it.

He quit his job as a product manager for Harris Corp., tapped into his life savings and hired some technical people to help. It was all based on a hunch or vision that he says couldn't even attract investors. "They said it was crazy and that it would never work," said Matt Highsmith, Attachmate's vice president of corporate marketing.

But just as Pritt quit his job, he found that someone else across the country had the same vision and created the very product he had in the works. Attachmate was a year or more behind Digital Communications Associates Inc. of Alpharetta, Ga., but the two companies grew to be head-to-head competitors.

Just over a year ago, DCA merged with Pritt's company and he retained majority ownership. Annual revenues for 1995 were $390.8 million, up from $390 million in 1994 and $145 million in 1993. "It was out-and-out focus, and totally sticking to that focus," Highsmith said. "He (Pritt) was out to prove a point."

Now Attachmate is everywhere, including 34 countries, but its world headquarters remains in Bellevue. The company has alliances with Novell, Apple and Microsoft, and puts out myriad applications, including EXTRA! Personal Client for Windows '95 and Emissary for simplified Internet access.

For all of Attachmate's success, it typically stays out of the headlines. Pritt, who seldom grants interviews, remains a very private person. He still keeps his old home in Bellevue's Newport Shores, but his $500 million fortune has bought him a lot more living rooms - new homes from Southern California to the Pacific Northwest.