which attracted a devoted following among professional writers. Announced in September 1989, XyWrite IV promised a lot to users, it entered beta-test after a year in November 1990 hoping to release by year end. By February 1991 it still hadn't shipped. The turning point for XyWrite came in the form of a disastrous near-partnership with IBM, which was seeking a modern replacement for its venerable DisplayWrite word processor. Working under an agreement signed in June 1990, XyQuest devoted nearly all of its development resources to revising Erickson's XyWrite IV to IBM's specifications, including IBM Common User Access-style menus, mouse support and a graphical user interface. Publicized in early 1991, the agreement envisioned as a marriage between XyQuest technology and IBM marketing, the product was to be called Signature, and would ship for MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows and IBM OS/2. DisplayWrite would be discontinued at the same time in favor of the new software. But on the eve of Signature's release, IBM announced a strategic decision to withdraw completely from the desktop software market, shocking XyQuest and leaving Signature in limbo. When a prospective new alliance with Lotus did not materialize, XyQuest regained the marketing rights to the software and restickered the ready-to-ship Signature packages pasting over the IBM logo. Following mixed reviews and poor performance, it was later improved and renamed as XyWrite 4.0. However, the changes IBM had insisted on were a liability where the III Plus user base was concerned. Some key reviews (such as in The Wall Street Journal) were harsh, and there were complaints that 4.0 was buggy and slow. Moreover, in the years since the last major XyWrite release, WordPerfect had cemented its hold on the DOS word processor market. Already financially strained by the long development cycle for Signature, by the end of 1992 XyQuest was bleeding money. The sale to The Technology Group ensued. While there were a few maintenance releases of 4.0 after the acquisition, The Technology Group's major commitment was to developing XyWrite for Windows. But XyWrite remained a niche product, unable to compete for the business user against Word for Windows, WordPerfect for Windows, and Ami Pro, despite added versatility and customization potential. The Technology Group was dissolved in 2003. Several versions of XyWrite were also localized for use in European countries. For example, the programs were offered in Germany under the name "euroscript" by North American Software GmbH. Nota Bene