METACARD ACQUIRED BY RUN REV!!!

[Dan Shafer]

(WARNING: This is a bit of a long rant and is probably of marginal interest unless you are a programming language junkie or just interested in the history of our business. You've been warned.)

Chipp Walters wrote:

> But, the question is, will RR sellout? Meaning, what if Oracle or Adobe or 
> someone decides they need a next-generation cross-platform app? They could 
> certainly afford to purchase a company like RR - then what happens. This is 
> (to me) a bigger potential issue than the one before us now. My best 
> thinking tells me Kevin and the team will do nothing but create a better 
> product. Here's why I don't think an aquistion like this is likely short 
> term. 
> 
> 1) Companies aren't in the mad acquistion mode in this economy -- and I 
> doubt this will turn around very soon; 
> 
That's not how I read things right now, Chipp. Oracle is certainly in acquisition mode. Always is. They're trying a hostile takeover of PeopleSoft as we speak. There seems to me to be a LOT of consolidation and acquisition going on at the moment.

> 2) Scotland is far far away; 
> 
Not in a networked world.

> 3) At this time, RR and MC aren't a big enough *dot* on the radar screen -- 
> though I expect that will change. 
Yes and yes.

As someone who was an insider during Oracle's acquisition of Spinnaker/Format's PLUS product back in the halcyon days of HyperCard and xTalk, let me make an observation or two here that may or may not be interesting to any significant number of people.

1. Failure to own your core technology is often fatal, either because investors won't give you money or because you bet your company on someone else's business plan. Those of us who choose to use RR (or MC for that matter) as a development platform run a HUGE risk and we shouldn't minimize that risk. If Oracle or Macromedia or Microsoft or anyone else came along and dangled enough dollars in front of the RR owners, they would be forced to sell; their shareholders wouldn't allow them to do any less. Similarly, if we choose to use not RR but, say, Python (still my favorite development language, suffering from all-but-nonexistent IDE), we still face a risk. The risk is arguably smaller because there are a lot of people who can maintain Python and keep it going. But there is always a risk that the core team will decide to retire and abandon the project. Its continuation then is tenuous.

2. When big companies acquire small ones for their technology, they most often botch it up or bury it. OracleCard, which is what Oracle turned PLUS into, was a fantastic, dynamite product. But its price tag was necessarily low, profit margins modest, and demand for it anemic. Eventually, Oracle cut it loose. I spent a lot of time developing OracleCard apps and writing about it. All that time went down the toilet except for what I learned that turns out to be useful elsewhere.

3. A product like RR gives its small band of adherents a ton of advantages, one of which (let's face it) is that not very many of our comopetitors in the software development world can truly compete with us on price adn time frame. If everyone started using RR, many of the advantages we gain from using it would fade. That's not to say we'd stop using it, of course, but as long as it's a well-kept secret, our big upside is really, really big.

4. It is not inevitable that RR will ever be acquired by BigCo. But it's not entirely unlikely, either. If and when that happens, regardless of the protestations of all the parties involved, it's time to make another key choice: bail out to something in which we can have greater long-term confidence because it's some SmallCo's Big Idea, or stay with the horse we know and hope the new owners don't put it out to pasture. (Wow, talk about mixing metaphors!)

For me, if a true Open Source product with an eminently learnable and usable language and a powerful cross-platform IDE existed, I'd be using it exclusively. As far as I can tell, no such beast exists and Heaven knows I've looked. So as far as I can tell right now, RR is the best development platform for the kinds of apps I like to build, bar none. As long as that's the case, I will ride the crests and troughs of the waves with it. Developers who moan and complain when their favorite development tool shifts gears and the rules change are simply revealing how good they've had it for as long as the rules haven't changed.

My bottom line: be grateful for the power of RR while keeping your eyes open for what comes next if and when BigCo takes over. If BigCo never arrives, you're still better for having explored other environments and learned from them.

Besides, no *serious* programmer has only one tool in his or her kit because no one tool is a panacea.

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