Hi Albert ----

>>No it wasn't. Access evolved from a much bigger PC-RDBMS project that was scrapped about the time that Fox Software was acquired but centered around the Jet database engine.
>
>but didn't that technology come from a buyout?

I'm almost certain that MS developed Jet and I know they developed Access...everyone was dinging them about not having a database product in the laste 80's - early 90's so they had at least one DBMS development project going on.