| Industry: | Software |
| Location: | Novato, California, U.S. |
| Founded: | By 1984 |
| Defunct: | 1987 |
| Fate: | Merged into Symantec |
| Products: | Project management software |
| Brands: | Time Line, Timeline |
Breakthrough Software was a software company based in Novato, California. Breakthrough developed and sold the Time Line project management software for PC DOS computers, releasing the first version in 1984,[1] and version 2.0 in July, 1985.[2] Company staff in the 1980s included William Lohse (1984-1985) as president,[3] Victoria Lohse as COO and CEO[4] and Andrew Layman as president starting in 1986.[2]
Negotiations to merge Breakthrough into Integrated Software Systems Corp. (ISSCO) reached an agreement in principle in October, 1986[4] but broke down soon afterwards when Computer Associates, developer of a different project management program, announced an agreement to acquire ISSCO.[5]
Breakthrough was acquired by Symantec in 1987. Symantec continued to release versions of Timeline until at least version 6.0 in 1994.[6]