ISWIX, LLC View Christopher Painter's profile on LinkedIn profile for Christopher Painter at Stack Overflow, Q&A for professional and enthusiast programmers

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Continental and United Airlines Merger Rumored

For those familiar with the airline industry, you'll know this rumor has been around forever. Still, consolidation will eventually occur in the industry and it looks like it might be sooner then later. Possibly as soon as next week.

One big question is where will HQ be: Chicago or Houston?

Geesh, do I really need any more reasons to move to the Windy City? Too bad my family doesn't want to move otherwise who knows what I could be working on right now.

Macrovision Sells InstallShield to TCB

As I recently posted, it's proving to be an Interesting Year Of Change:

Macrovision has agreed to sell it's software business unit including FlexNet and InstallShield brands to Thoma Cressey Bravo (TCB) for $200 Million USD.

Interestingly the company that I currently work for ( Manatron ) was also recently sold to TCB.

NEW YORK (Associated Press) - Macrovision Corp., the media technology company that is trying to buy GemStar-TV Guide, said Thursday it agreed to sell its software business to an affiliate of private equity firm Thoma Cressey Bravo for about $200 million.

The move comes as Macrovision, which makes software to prevent unauthorized copying and viewing of video, music and other content, tries to convince shareholders to approve its $2.8 billion purchase of GemStar's interactive television listings.

The business for sale includes Macrovision's Flexnet and InstallShield security products. The company did not say how much revenue the unit delivered in 2007.

Thoma Cressey plans to operate the business as a stand-alone company and keep Mark Bishof on board to run it. Bishof is currently executive vice president and general manager of the software business unit at Macrovision.

The company expects the deal to close by April 1, pending antitrust approvals.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Application Virtualization

Windows Installer was out for 4 years before I decided to give it a try. I was late to the party because I felt that MSI was too controlling and InstallShield for Windows Installer was too buggy. Eventually it matured and I was convinced to give it a try. 5 years later and I'm starting to get that same feeling about Application Virtualization. I can see the simplicity and reduced risk of deployment, yet I just haven't had the free time or need to give it a try yet. Maybe one day soon that will change.

BTW, I was looking into Thinstall the other day and something really, really concerned me. It seems that they want ISV's to pay license fee for every single seat that deploy to. That seems a radical and expensive departure from the per-developer licensing model. I can kind of understand this price structure for enterpise environments but not ISV's. I downloaded an eval copy but didn't have time to play with it. I'm also signed up for the Softricity beta but again, no time to look at it.

The really anonying part though is the tons of voicemails left by Thinstall sales reps. It seems like they would call me three times a day for 2 weeks before they got the hint I wasn't going to call them back.