The company has 70 percent of the spreadsheet market.

Worst of all, Lotus has begun to lose some of its home turf in the spreadsheet market.

It is among the growing number of Web 2.0, SaaS offerings in the online spreadsheet market.

By contrast, Microsoft has come from nowhere a few years ago to take 42 percent of the spreadsheet market last year, up from 19 percent in 1990.

Lotus, which dominates the spreadsheet market, has sold more than two million copies of 1-2-3.

Starting in the mid-1990s continuing through the present, Microsoft Excel has dominated the commercial electronic spreadsheet market.

A number of companies have attempted to break into the spreadsheet market with programs based on very different paradigms.

As the popularity of the personal computer grew, Lotus quickly came to dominate the spreadsheet market.

As recently as 1990, the Cambridge company had almost 70% of the $1.2 billion a year spreadsheet market with its 1-2-3 flagship program.

Lotus has dominated the spreadsheet market for five years.