Visigenic

Visigenic Software, Inc. was a United States–based software company active in the 1990s that specialized in middleware and distributed object computing. The firm is best known for its CORBA Object Request Broker product, VisiBroker, which aimed to enable interoperable communication between distributed components across different programming languages and platforms.

VisiBroker was a cross-language, cross-platform CORBA ORB designed to facilitate the development of distributed applications. It supported multiple operating systems and development environments, providing services for object invocation, lifecycle management, and data marshalling that were central to CORBA-based architectures of the era. The product was positioned as a high-performance middleware solution for enterprise applications requiring distributed object communication.

Historically, Visigenic operated in a competitive CORBA market alongside other middleware vendors and contributed to the adoption of CORBA in enterprise environments. The company’s technology was part of the broader shift toward standardizing how distributed objects interact across heterogeneous systems.

In the mid- to late 1990s, Visigenic was acquired by Borland, and its VisiBroker line became part of Borland’s enterprise middleware offerings. Over time, as Borland reorganized its product strategy and later focused more on development tools, the Visigenic brand was absorbed and the standalone middleware line was phased out. Despite its later acquisition, Visigenic’s VisiBroker represented a significant milestone in CORBA-based distributed computing during its era.

See also: CORBA, VisiBroker, Borland.

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