[thelist] Microsoft to aquire Macromedia?

Seth Bienek seth at sethbienek.com
Wed Jan 30 16:01:01 CST 2002


Hi John,

My inquiry was posted to thelist was to get insight that is simply not available
anywhere else, not to perpetuate any nasty rumors.  Check the subject line -
notice the conspicuous lack of exclamation points.

What other means for checking the validity of such a rumor would you suggest,
other than your 'common sense' deduction that since JRun is the top-selling J2EE
Server, Macromedia can't be aquired by Microsoft?  It may seem like common sense
to you, but I've read the paragraph several times and I still don't get it.
Maybe you could explain again more thoroughly?

So you won't get the impression that I didn't put any thought into the idea
before I decided to ask around, I'll address some of your comments:

> Yes, it would be nice if something could be falsified in some way, wouldn't
> it? Spreading non-falsifiable rumors is separate from saying things.

This makes no sense to me.  Are saying that nothing should be posted unless it
can be proven/disproven?  That would contradict the purpose of the message
itself, which is to find out if there is anything solid behind the statement,
and if so, what.  If I had all the facts, I wouldn't need to ask thelist.

> You might consider that, if there were some real attribution, some real
> basis, that it would appear in the original thread. Spreading it elsewhere
> asking if anyone has additional info does not seem the soundest strategy
> for checking it... you'd see what evidence they offer themselves.

FC has a good record of foreseeing and reporting changes in our industry.  At
least Yahoo Finance thinks so:
http://finance.yahoo.com/mp#macr. If you can get past the potty-mouth domain
name, I'd recommend browsing through some past reports.  Were it not a credible
or respected source known for its accuracy, I would not embarrass myself by
asking about it on a forum of a couple thousand of my peers.

> Assume such a thing were true... how would the most widely-sold J2EE
> application server be handled? (That's Macromedia JRun.) They couldn't use
> it, couldn't sell it, couldn't keep it...

JSP.NET anyone?  Why could JRun not be marketed by MS, or sold, or spun off?
And who's to say MS even cares about JSP?  We are talking about the world's
richest organization.  Why would they not purchase a company who has succeeded
where Microsoft has failed miserably (namely design apps) and cut loose the
products that don't fit in with their road-map?  I am aware that the last thing
Microsoft needs is more focus on their aquisitions, but has it stopped them in
the past?

> figuring out that showstopper would be a necessary first step in assuming
> that such a story were true.  Then you have to figure what would happen to
> ColdFusion, which is a major part of the company's future.

Macromedia's focus on JRun has not gone unnoticed by the CF Community.
Macromedia's plan is to basically turn CF into an application that runs on top
of the JRun engine.  There's nothing wrong with that.  In fact, it kicks ass,
`cause it will allow people who are relatively new to web development to ramp up
quickly and develop J2EE-compliant apps.  But I digress.  My original point was,
why does Microsoft need CF? Or JRUN?  MACR would be purchased to fill what few
gaps remain in MS's product line-up.  And guess where nearly every product in
that line-up has come from:  Aquisitions.

> Would Dreamweaver
> be thrown away in favor of FrontPage? comarketed? Neither seems to make sense,
> but that can't stop such a rumor either.

Couldn't the same argument have been made about HomeSite, or ColdFusion Studio,
or JRun Studio?  Last time I checked, all Macromedia is going to sell you in the
future is UltraDev (hopefully with some of Studio's finer features built in) or
DreamWeaver.  These products are going away as part of the Allaire/Macromedia
merger.  Believe it or not, it happens.  Products that do not fit the road map
are cut loose.

> See? There's no way to falsify it. Spreading it is what it thrives on.

Who says?  Can you give a definite confirmation that the report is false?  I'd
love to hear it.

> If you can bear to, go listen to the garbage in that nasty-company.com site
> itself and see if you can find any useful nuggets in there, before
> soliciting/spreading it elsewhere.

I will.  Because knowing what is happening in my industry is vital to my
survival as a part of it.  FC isn't my only source of news but it has shown in
the past to be reliable enough to remain in my bookmarks.

> (I'm not coming down on you personally, Seth. It's just that I could be
> doing other work now, and am instead chasing down this timewaster from list
> to list.)

I understand your frustration in dealing with this.  I am also grateful  that
you took the time to write such a detailed, thoughtful response.  However, a
more tactful approach might have been to address the issue with facts instead of
logic, if you have them.  Logic without facts, after all, is what perpetuates
rumors, right?

I also understand that you are looking at the statement from the perspective of
a Macromedia employee, so I'm sure it's a personal issue for you; I can tell for
sure, in fact, by the defensive posture of your email.

> (Thanks, Bill, for the pointer to where Matt invested time in his day in
> trying to stop this.)

I did do some looking into the report before I posted anything to thelist.  I
always do the research before asking a question here.  I am not subscribed to
the CF-Talk list, so I wouldn't have known about Matt's post there had Bill from
this list not relayed the URL.  And that is exactly how thelist is supposed to
work.


Take Care,

Seth

PS: Sorry for the long post.  Trimmed all I could.

<tip>
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You can also search thelist archives, to be certain the question hasn't been
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