Softquad buys Softquad
November 11, 1998
The Seybold Report on Internet Publishing
Special to XML.com
On Tuesday, November 10, SoftQuad International announced the sale of their XML and HTML assets to a new group consisting of several unnamed employees and a private investor forming a new company named SoftQuad Software. This action follows the late September sale of some SGML software and support assets to Interleaf. While the publicly-traded parent company retains the SoftQuad Inc. name, it now consists primarily of Alpha Software which will focus on its core business of video games for kids in its NewKidCo LLC.
The company recently released HoTMetaL 5.0 and is focusing on the first quarter 1999 release of XMetaL, an XML/SGML editor with an easy, HTML-like interface. The major change, according to Lauren Wood, Product Manager for XMetaL, is that now they are a private company, not a public company. She expects no major changes in personnel or organizational structure.
The development work will continue in the Vancouver office and the technical support, documentation, sales and marketing will be handled out of Toronto as before. Roberto Drassinower moves from Vice President and General Manger to President and CEO, Bruce Sharpe and Jonathan Sachs remain in their current positions as Vice President of Development and VP of Sales and Marketing. Sachs stated that the strategic goals of the new company are not substantially different, but that executive management now has the focus, commitment and resources to develop and market their structured editing tools. According to Wood, "We're all pretty happy about it."