By the mid-1980s, the introduction of the IBM PC was shaking up the entire computer market and MAI was once again losing money.
Walter Oreamuno, an immigrant to the United States from Costa Rica, won a problem-solving contest run by IBM.
[1] In 1956, IBM entered a consent decree with the Department of Justice that forced them to sell their mainframe computers, not just lease them.
This meant the company did not have to use its own capital to buy the systems, and their first customers were mainly banks who could easily arrange the required financing.
[2] IBM depreciated its systems very rapidly and this led to a large market for used machines at very low costs.
In 1970, MAI president Sol Gordon asked him to return, setting up a new division, Basic/Four in Santa Ana, California.
Kurshan reorganized the firm into three divisions, Basic/Four Corporation continued development of their new platform, Genesis One took over the existing leasing business with an eye to selling off the equipment, and Sorbus was a new service organization formed from the service side of MAI's leasing business.
In 1977, the company bought Wordstream Corporation and sold their word processing systems that ran on IBM terminals.
[3] In 1984, Asher Edelman purchased 12% of MAI's outstanding shares, and began a proxy war for control of the company.
He gained outright control in August, causing Kurshan to resign his positions as chairman, president and CEO.
Sorbus was sold to a Bell Atlantic subsidiary and Basic/Four was purchased in a $100 million leveraged buyout by Bennett S.
LeBow brought in William Patton to turn around the fortunes of the rest of the company, which they did by focussing on their existing 27,000 strong customer base, and narrowing future sales to eight key markets where they were well represented.
With this cash, the company re-purchased MAI Canada and portions of Sorbus, along with twenty-five smaller software firms aimed at specific industries.
The takeover attempt failed in June, having cost $25 million and generating considerable ill-will among MAI's customer base.
LeBow resigned control positions, and Fred Anderson became the president and chief operating officer while William Weksel became the CEO and chair.
They emerged from Chapter 11 in 1993 as a much smaller company focussed mainly on their niche market software systems like hotel booking and food services (through the Sextant division).