METACARD ACQUIRED BY RUN REV!!!

[Chipp Walters]

I've been listening to this very interesting conversation. After thinking a
bit, I've decided this is a good thing...I've chronicled my journey with
Xtalk in order to prove a point. Sorry so long...

First my concerns...
When Charlie Jackson sold Silicon Beach (and SuperCard) to Aldus, I remember
talking to him and he assured me it was a good thing.. Bigger company, more
resources, better product. I took the bait. Course, don't blame Charlie - he
made a buttload(US term for much dinero;-). As someone said, "Aldus didn't
do SuperCard any favors."

When Aldus sold to Allegiant Technologies, I met with Joel Staadecker (the
primary investor) to discuss the product and his opportunity. I knew the
team well, and believed Aldus had really dropped the ball. Joel seemed to
understand the risks going in. Lots of promises later and there still wasn't
the 'Windows version' which most had been waiting for. Allegiant ended up
failing and SC was picked up by new owners (by this time Bill Appleton the
inventor of SC had departed).

SuperCard ended up floating around for awhile. If you were a SC developer,
you ended up suffering with them as well. Thankfully, they are now up and
running and prospering (I hope:-)

So, this seems like a pretty scary moment right now.

But,

When Jerry Daniels (just a couple of years ago) told me about this new
company RR, I was skeptical, especially seeing how young and inexperienced
they were at that time. I contacted Scott Raney, learned about MC and
decided to use RR (for IDE) because after all, there is always the fallback
position of MC if RR craters.

Later, after using RR and realizing the tremendous power the IDE + MC engine
created, I became more interested in the company. Kevin and I discussed the
future of the company, and I decided to invest in the company. The reason
for this is, I was (and am still) *very* impressed with the business acumen
of Kevin and the team. They have a great business plan and are committed to
following it. (That being said, I'm offering only *my opinions* and not
those of RR or MC.)

It turns out, getting investors is difficult if you don't own the underlying
technology --the MC engine. Investment dollars are necessary for marketing
and future R&D. It's a chicken and the egg thing. Now, with ownership of MC,
RR can attract the kind of investment opportunites much easier.

Now, Scott Raney has always struck me as a conservative businessman, not
likely to take major risks. So I think Scott must also be impressed, to turn
over his life's work to them. Now, I don't think RR will mind me saying they
are not the richest company in the world, and I doubt they made Scott an
instant multi-millionaire, so in my mind, it appears Scott didn't sellout.

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;

2) Scotland is far far away;

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

But, eventually, an acquisition could take place. In this event, RR and MC
must be packaged as a single product.

By creating an OpenSource front end, Scott has assured the future of this
product, regardless of what happens. This is enough insurance for me.

--Chipp