Prodigal Sears

In a prominent location facing out from an end cap sat a TI-99 display at Sears.  My brother and I always got sucked into its gravitational pull.  We’d play games then badger whichever parental unit was with us to purchase said game.  

The mall was a decent distance from our house and we didn’t go on a regular basis.  Computers came and went from our house – the kit computer, the TI-99 and apple clone.   None had internet access.  Times changed and the computer display at Sears morphed into a beige box with Prodigy.   

Again on the end cap luring in consumers, early online content was on display. Prodigy and AOL wanted to be the gateway for the average consumer to the wild lands of the internet.  My dad never paid for brand names. I’m not sure which internet service provider he started with, but definitely not one of those two. 

Prodigy is the service that sticks in my head.  I think it was the logo.

Prodigy started in 1984 as a joint venture between CBS, IBM, and Sears, Roebuck and Company.  It was an online content provider before the term was defined.  Prodigy created content and birthed ecommerce but it was not an internet service provider.  It wasn’t a web browser.  It curated the internet for users. 

Prodigy differentiated itself by having a graphic user interface. Earlier providers were text based.  Its business model was based on advertising and e-commerce. Consumers paid a flat rate for the service.  Emails and message boards were the most popular features. 

The tech stack started with lines –  telephone or private lines. Plain old telephone service (POTS) used literal copper wire loops for analog signal transmission.  It was the standard for over 110 years.   The hardwired connectivity achieved five nines availability – 99.999%.

X.25 protocol used copper lines as well – leased lines (a private telecommunication circuit where each side was open so constant connectivity) or POTS.  Eventually microwaves and fiber optics replaced copper wire.

My beloved IBM mainframe has a part in the Prodigy story.  The host systems were regionally distributed IBM Series/1 minicomputers managed by central IBM mainframes located in Yorktown Heights, New York.

In 1996, it was one of the two three online content providers with 1.5 million subscribers.   The others were AOL (4.5 million) and CompuServe (4 million).  At its zenith, it still lost money.

Sears divested its portion of Prodigy.   The company went in a different direction.   The online content piece became Prodigy Classic and a new internet service provider service called Prodigy Internet was created.  The Prodigy bet didn’t pay off for Sears. The retail company, founded in 1892, expanded beyond retail into other sectors in the 80s. Sears acquired Dean Witter, a stock brokerage, and started the Discover Credit Card with them.  They also acquired Coldwell Banker, a real estate franchise.  These also didn’t pay off and were divested in the 90s.  In 2019, Sears’ bankruptcy was approved. In 2023, there are only 11 stores remaining. 

Prodigy Classic and its ‘antiquated proprietary interface’ were a victim of Y2K.   It was laid to rest in 2001.   Prodigy Internet went on the modern tech journey.   It went public,  did a deal with SBC Communications (aka Southwestern Bell Corp a baby bell) and Yahoo!,  got bought out by SBC and absorbed.  SBC gobbled up other baby bells and telecom companies, eventually consuming AT&T Corporation like an ouroboros. 

IBM still owns Prodigy patents.  The patent portfolio contains 45k patents and generated $1.19 billion in 2018.  Amazon paid $49.8 million, Google $35 million and Twitter $36 million in 2018. Groupon was thwacked with a lawsuit  in 2018.  They forked over $82.5 million.

Prodigy is dead. Long live Prodigy.