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Samir Arora, born November 5, 1965, is best known for being the founder, CEO and Chairman of NetObjects, Inc., and helping to create the term "Web Site". Other interests include the fashion and entertainment industry as well as body therapy and health.

Samir Arora grew up in New Delhi, India. He has attended INSEAD Business School in France and Executive Education at Harvard Business School, holds a diploma in Sales and Marketing from the London Business School, studied Filmmaking and Production at the Brooks Institute of Photography, and Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS).

The Apple and Rae Years

Samir Arora worked at Apple Computer in Software and New Media from 1983 to 1992, and moved to Cupertino, California, in 1986.

Arora wrote a white paper called "Information Navigation: The Future of Computing" in late 1986, and worked on early Desktop Publishing, HyperCard and 4th Dimension.

He is known for creating the first "External Objects" specification, coined the term "MacNavigator" and "MacBrowser" and worked on the early prototypes that lead to the making of the "Knowledge Navigator" video in 1987. Arora worked for the Chairman and CEO of Apple Computer, John Sculley, from 1987 to 1991.

From 1992 to 1995, Arora was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Rae Technology (a spin-off from Apple Computer), which developed "information navigation applications" that can be seen as predecessors of Web sites. Rae Technology created the first Personal Information Manager (PIM) Rae Assist.

NetObjects

In 1995 Samir Arora founded NetObjects, Inc., together with David Kleinberg, Clement Mok and Sal Arora. With a high-class development and design team, NetObjects Fusion, one of the very first web design tools, was created.

NetObjects Fusion was revolutionary at the time of its introduction in 1996. It was innovative in the way Web sites were designed and structured.

For introducing NetObjects Fusion Samir Arora was elected as Web Innovator of the Year 1997 by CNET, as someone who helped "shape the Web," create the term "Web Site" and helped "create the first Web Site building product", and also was named Entrepreneur of the Year 1997 by the Emerging Business Council of the Information Industry Association (now Software and Information Industry Association).

After the very successful launch of NetObjects Fusion, IBM became the majority investor at a $ 150 million valuation. NetObjects, Inc. went public on NASDAQ in 1999 with IBM as a majority shareholder.

Tough competition and fast changing markets madeNetObjects, Inc. introduce a shift in its business model from packaged software to a subscription model. Decreasing revenues and the decline in public markets heavily affected share prices, and following a de-listing notice from the NASDAQ, it's majority shareholder IBM made the decision to sell the company in 2001. Its assets including NetObjects Fusion were sold to Website Pros, a web services company, based in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. A portfolio of seven patents was acquired by Macromedia (now Adobe), the distributor of Dreamweaver.

From his Rae Technology and NetObjects Inc. time Samir Arora holds eleven US patents, including eight design patents that were co-invented with Clement Mok, Vic Zauderer, and Susan Kare, and one utility patent that was co-invented with Sal Arora, Raj Lakshminarayan, Greg Brown and Martin Fried-Nielsen.

After NetObjects

Since 1997, Samir Arora has been the Chairman of Information Capital LLC, a venture capital fund based in Woodside, California, USA, which invests in consumer publishing, media & technology companies.

From 2002 to 2004 Samir Arora was the Chairman of Emode: Tickle, Inc., which was sold to Monster.com. Tickle was a leading consumer website with over 42 million registered users.

In 2003 Arora helped found and invested in Glam Media, Inc. - a privately held company in Silicon Valley and New York, USA, that has become a leading Life Style new media company.

Interests in the Arts and Entertainment

Besides his media and software activities, multi-talented Samir Arora has had numerous engagements in the entertainment industry. He has participated in more than 30 theatre and television productions, including Jesus Christ Superstar (1975-76), Tommy (1978), Kidstuff (1979), Death of an Anarchist (1980), and The Day of Atonement (1981). Arora has written 2 plays: The Pinnacle (1982) and The Vulture Stooped Low (1984), two musicals: The Wall (1981) and Stronger than Superman (1984), and has directed and produced 4 plays. Arora serves on the board of trustees of TheatreWorks and is the Chairman of the not-for profit organization IZII.

Health and Therapy

Samir Arora is a certified Body Therapist (AISI) and has studied Body Work, Ida Rolf's Structural Integration, Moshé Feldenkrais' Functional Integration, Zen Trigger Point, Berry Method, Trager Work, and Dub Leigh's Zentherapy.

External Links and References

- Personal Homepage

- Interview from 1999

Various other web pages and articles.

Personal e-mail from Samir Arora to the first author of this article with biographical details.

• 1965 births
• Living people
• Internet history
• Apple employees
• Software engineers