Zendex Corporation

Zendex Corporation was incorporated in California in 1979 by Robert "Bob" Livermore of Danville, CA. Lee Ditzler, also of Danville, had founded Universal Engineered Systems (UES) of Pleasanton, CA, and had sold it to Wheelerbrator-Frye Corporation. So Lee was looking to start up a new venture. Bob had been an investor in UES and Richard Main (this writer) had risen from engineering technician to Chief Engineer. Lee convinced the two of them to join him in the new venture. Lee, however, was worried about a covenant to not compete that he had signed with Wheelerbrator-Frye Corporation, so he failed to follow through. Richard and Bob decided to go ahead without him, and Richard suggested the name Zedex. Bob handled the incorporation, but misspelled Zedex, and incorporated the company as Zendex. The new name sounded pretty good, so they stuck with it. Bob then wrote a check for $40,000 for Richard to set up the company, bank accounts, leases, equipment, and hire a secretary and draftsman. Bob Berry and Debbie (?) from USE were hired, and the team started designing Multibus compatible boards and systems.
New products were coming out every month and that started to attract a lot of attention. One day John Doeer of Kleiner Perkins and Gordy Campbell of SEEQ Technology (Milpitas, CA) called to start negotiations to acquire Zendex. Bob Livermore didn't like the notion that he would be put out to pasture, so having 90% equity in Zendex, he ended the effort. That seemed a mistake to Richard Main, by then President of Zendex, and he negotiated a sale of his 10% ownership in Zendex to Bob Livermore. Zendex made monthly payments to Richard for the next seen years. Richard put himself through school with the money, and managed to earn two bachelor, two masters, and a doctorate degree (JD, Santa Clara Law). Richard became a patent attorney and now works as a self-employed contract patent attorney in Elk Grove, California.
Bob Livermore managed to keep Zendex going at about the $5M a year level until his death.
SFGate.com had this to say about Bob:

Robert Sealy Livermore, prominent Bay Area rancher and member of
a pioneer California family, died November 5 (1997) from an aneurysm at the
family ranch in Calistoga. He was 71 and the youngest of five
brothers, all of whom survive him.
"Bob" Livermore was best known as manager of the sprawling Bishop
Ranch in San Ramon, before it was sold to the Western Electric Co. He
and his wife, Jean, ran 300 acres of cattle ranchland (Montesol), as well as
orchards stocked with walnut and pear trees.
Mr. Livermore was not related to the family that founded the city of
the same name, but he played a pivotal role in the region.
An entrepreneur, he insisted that it was the responsibility of
people with "old money" to invest in young, small businesses—and
although his roots were agricultural, he was also the chief executive
officer of Zendex, a small computer company in Dublin.
The rangy, 6-foot-6-inch rancher was a man of remarkably wide-
ranging interests. He was a member of Planned Parenthood and the
National Rifle Association, Friends of the Bancroft Library and the
Cattlemen's Association.
He spent his final weekend supervising lumber trucks at the Montesol
Ranch, a Napa Valley spread that had been in the family for more than
125 years.
But he also moved effortlessly between the rugged and rural, the
refined and urbane. "I just remember him being in his grubby
clothes, cutting wood and then going to the opera," a friend
recalled. "He wasn't particularly concerned about his appearance --
but he could dress up with the best of them."
Mr. Livermore was born June 12, 1926, in San Francisco. His
great-grandfather, Horatio Gates Livermore, walked across the
continent in 1850, from Boston to California, behind a covered wagon.

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