CHEYENNE – Is Quark Inc. coming to Cheyenne?Officials aren’t talking, but the Denver-based computer software company is widely rumored to be considering an expansion into the Cheyenne area.
Cheyenne LEADS, the Cheyenne-Laramie County economic-development corporation, had scheduled a news conference for Feb. 27 to announce that an “internationally known company” would disclose intentions to construct a new facility in the Cheyenne Business Parkway, LEADS’ business park in southeast Cheyenne.
The news conference was postponed because of “unforeseen business scheduling difficulties,” but LEADS said it would be rescheduled. Beyond that, LEADS officials would make no comment about the announcement or confirm or deny any rumors.
In announcing the news conference, LEADS said the company has more than one million customers in 100 countries worldwide.
Quark officials could not be reached for comment. Quark produces the country’s most widely used desktop-publishing program, QuarkXPress, and boasts annual revenues of $200 million.
QuarkXPress accounted for 56 percent of 422,000 desktop-publishing units shipped for Macintosh computers in 1995, according to statistics compiled by International Data Corp. Quark also owns 27 percent of the same market for personal computers.
In February, Quark advertised several positions in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, Cheyenne’s daily newspaper, and said it was interested in opening a facility in Cheyenne. The company was seeking customer-service representatives, a customer-service manager and a production manager.
Quark was established in 1981, and founder Tim Gill is credited with developing Apple’s first word-processing program. QuarkXPress was released in 1987, and it was one of the pioneers in desktop publishing and remains a standard in that industry.
The company expanded to international markets in 1988 with a manufacturing and distribution facility in Ireland and later in other locations in Europe and Asia.
The privately held company employs more than 650 people and recently released QuarkImmedia, which allows users to create documents on the World Wide Web.
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