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 (this and the following paragraphs are based mainly on Baehr 2018). 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. Envisioned as a marriage between XyQuest technology and IBM marketing, the product was to be called Signature.