Who says you can't get fired for buying IBM?

[extra: pcw-1985-11_MAXWELL.webp|Robert Maxwell, owner of Oxford United FC, with some women in United kit, &copy; PCW, November 1985|300|left]Wang, founded in 1951 by Dr.  An Wang and Dr. G.Y. Chu, was a US computer company based in Massachussetts, US, which, at its peak in the 1980s generated revenues of $3 billion before fizzling out, via various buy-outs, in 2008[source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Laboratories]. 

The company wasn't huge in the UK, but did have its machines selected for a DTI Office Automation scheme at the National Coal Board. 

It also sponsored football team Oxford United for the 1985/86 season to the tune of £300,000[source: "Chip chat", PCW, November 1985, p. 288]. 

Oxford United was owned by Robert Maxwell, who had recently walked away from a £12 million rescue of Sinclair.

Wang's Personal Computer had a slightly-better 8086 CPU compared to the IBM PC it was up against, but it wasn't compatible with the IBM at hardware level. This led to software compatibility issues and subsequently a lack of software. 

Relatively few well-known packages were available, although Microsoft's MultiPlan was one of them.

