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.