(HNC Software Inc., San Diego, CA) A software company that specialized in products that detect credit card fraud, manage merchant risk, automate lending decisions and home valuations and manage retail inventories. Founded in 1986 by Robert Hecht-Nielsen and Todd W. Gutschow, it was initially involved with neural network products and training. In 1990, HNC changed its focus to intelligent decision support applications. In 2002, it was acquired by Fair, Isaac and Company.