Dennis Hayes (businessman)
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Dennis C. Hayes (born 1950) is the inventor of PC modem and founder of Hayes Microcomputer Products,<ref name=Hayes.NYT_1994>Template:Cite news</ref> a manufacturer of modems mostly known for introducing the Hayes AT command set, which has subsequently been used in most modems produced to this day.<ref name=Hayes.NYT99>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="invent">Template:Cite web</ref>
Background
Hayes had a student job at AT&T Long Lines, in an engineering group, while attending Georgia Institute of Technology. <ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
He left Georgia Tech in the mid-1970s to work at an early data communications company, National Data Corporation in Atlanta, a company that handled electronic money transfers and credit card authorizations. Hayes's job was to set up modem connections for NDC's customers. In 1977, Hayes started his company "by assembling modems by hand on a borrowed kitchen table."<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref> He met Dale Heatherington at National Data Corporation and together they developed and marketed the first high-quality IBM PC modem, and built the company named Hayes Communications around it. While Heatherington left the company early (in 1985)<ref name=CompHist.Hayes>Template:Cite web</ref> to retire, Hayes ran the company until it filed for bankruptcy in 1998 when the technology was incorporated into the products of competitors.<ref name=invent /><ref name="modemhist">Template:Cite web</ref>
In 1994, Hayes's share of the modem market was 20% and still "the market leader in modems", but a decline in relation to its previous market share of over 50%.<ref name=Hayes.NYT_1994/>
Personal life
In 1982, Hayes married Melita Easters. They divorced in 1987 with an estimated $40 million divorce settlement, one of the largest ever in Georgia.<ref name=":0" /> The same year of his divorce, Hayes married Mina Chan with whom, according to Georgia Trend magazine, he had an affair in 1986 while still married to Easters. Chan was a director of Hayes's company.<ref name=":0" /> From two marriages he has four children.<ref name=LantaJournal81>Template:Cite news</ref>