Is Xara next? (A little gossip)

**carygee** · 14 March 2006, 08:42 PM

I just received an e-mail from @Last Software. Here's an excerpt:

"WHAT’S NEW
Well, about the biggest thing ever: we've been Googled! That's right, Google Inc. has acquired @Last Software…so you might have just spit your coffee all over your keyboard, or you're rolling your eyes thinking this is another one of my April Fool's jokes. Believe me, we're still having a hard time believing it ourselves, but it's real—we are now Google!"

This comes a mere week after Google acquired Writely - a nascent web-based MS Word-like application.

Could Xara be the next target?

**carygee** · 14 March 2006, 08:45 PM

Oops! I should add that @Last Software makes a great 3D CAD-like program called SketchUp.

www.sketchup.com

**jclements** · 15 March 2006, 01:15 AM

There are a lot of us who have mixed feelings about it.

I love my SketchUp and my Xara. Take them away or stagnate them and I'm up the creek.

**michaelward** · 15 March 2006, 12:07 PM

But Xara with the money and developers it needs...

**AntonyF** · 15 March 2006, 03:10 PM

I sure hope not.

As I get older, I realize the value more and more in independent companies/products. As all the programs I liked get shelved through takeovers, I'm proud to work for Xara as not-yet-another-part-of-some-big-company.

**amoore** · 15 March 2006, 03:34 PM

Originally Posted by AntonyF

I realize the value more and more in independent companies/products.

Hear, hear!!! I'm having trouble thinking of a situation in which a product improved when acquired by a big company. The closest I can come is the rewrite/update that Corel did on Ventura Publisher several years back. Even so, Corel has always treated Ventura as a step-child. (Xara and Ventura are my two great software loves.)

OTOH, I can think of innumerable instances where products have languished or been ruined by acquistion. (Norton Utilities, anyone?

)

**carygee** · 15 March 2006, 05:01 PM

What is intriguing is the possibility that Google will turn SketchUp and future acquisitions into"free" programmes.

**Soquili** · 15 March 2006, 05:19 PM

I agree totally with Antony and Allison. Xara Ltd. as an independant entity is the choice I would prefer if such an acquisition is contemplated.

wW · 15 March 2006, 08:30 PM

Perhaps we'll get lucky & Google would take Xara's OpenSource & actually do something with it. Make it into what the program they want, Re-name & re-release it. Isn't that how OpenSource works? Xara's gets a cut, Google gets a new program? This is the impression I'm getting.

Or is OpenSource related more to plugins that would go into XaraXtreme?

Comments? Corrections?

wW

**RTK** · 15 March 2006, 09:31 PM

Google is a webcentric company. They have Google Earth where they already use the @Last Software Sketch-Up plug-in. This acquisition obviously has to do with taking the 3D map aspect of the technology to a whole new level.

The Google stock is not at the level it is because they sit on their hands (or for what they currently pull in) but for what they might/will come up with in the future. Killing off something as clever as Sketch-Up would not really serve a purpose. Google's pots of gold will most likely give the development of Sketch-Up more resources - resulting in more "goodies" that they can pick in to whatever project they have in mind. If not for anything else, they are making sure that MSN (or whoever) doesn't get an "up" on them.

Boosting the @Last Software development won't even make the tiniest ripple on the water that is the Google financials. @Last Software is obviously profitable as is, and simply raising the Google flag will give the application more attention. It's a win-win situation.

As for Xara X being next... I sincerely doubt that a vector drawing applications fits in to the Google plans. But who knows, maybe they could make something happen with the Xara Online module technology?