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On Wednesday, May 9, 2007, Microsoft announced the purchase
of the OfficeWriter technology from SoftArtisans, Inc. In spite of incorrect
media and verbal accounts, Microsoft acquired only the technology from
SoftArtisans, not the company. The official
press release from Microsoft has the correct information.
Katmai will be the first release of SQL Server that contains
some limited functionality of OfficeWriter.
Customer Investments in OfficeWriter Preserved
SoftArtisans and Microsoft negotiated an
uncommon arrangement to satisfy our mutual current customers in both the
short and longer term.
It's important to be clear that the OfficeWriter software
remains available now and will continue to be enhanced, upgraded and available
in the future. Customers who need OfficeWriter functionality can purchase
the product exclusively from SoftArtisans today, knowing that this functionality
will be available as part of a Microsoft product at some point in the
future. It's a winning situation for all parties.
Acquisition Details
Microsoft acquired all the intellectual property
of OfficeWriter. As part of the arrangement, several members of the SoftArtisans
development team have already moved to Redmond to join the SQL Server Reporting
Services (SSRS) team.
Microsoft then licensed the OfficeWriter software back
to SoftArtisans so that we can continue to evolve, maintain and support
OfficeWriter. This arrangement means that this important functionality
continues to be available today while Microsoft integrates it into future
versions of SQL Server and potentially other Microsoft products.
Since this is a process that will take years, it is to
everyone's benefit that SoftArtisans continue to sell, evolve, upgrade
and maintain OfficeWriter during this prolonged integration period. The
two development teams will work in lock step to ensure that issues, new
features and future customer requirements are shared. SoftArtisans has
already been providing the SSRS team with feature and functionality requests.
There are also financial incentives for both companies to make this arrangement
work.
Future Plans
Katmai will contain some OfficeWriter functionality.
At a very minimum, it will include reporting in Microsoft Word format. Other
parts of OfficeWriter will appear in future releases from Microsoft. The
last piece to be integrated will likely be Enterprise Edition functionality
including run-time APIs for manipulating Excel and Word documents. SSRS
has no run-time capability at the present time, which is why this piece
is farthest away. At some point, years from now, the integration will be
complete and SoftArtisans will no longer sell OfficeWriter as a separate
product.
SoftArtisans has other product lines and is actively developing
exciting new software that addresses the needs of our enterprise customers.
We look forward to maintaining a positive and mutually beneficial relationship
with our customers now and for the foreseeable future.
Sincerely,
David Wihl
CEO and Founder
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