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2006-11-21 12:00:00

CodeGear

So last week while I was in Madrid, Borland finally announced what they're doing with "DevCo".  Instead of selling their dev tools division, they are spinning it out into a wholly owned subsidiary called CodeGear.

People keep asking me for my reaction to this news, especially because the name is so obviously similar to SourceGear.

Actually, I have a bunch of different thoughts.  So, in the spirit of my favorite scene from Roxanne, here are twenty possible reactions I could offer:

 

Flattered

Wow!  One of the most influential developer tools companies has just chosen a new name which rides on the popularity of SourceGear!

Financial

Wasn't the sale of DevCo supposed to provide the cash infusion necessary to make Borland's enterprise strategy look credible?

Childish

Hey Joel!  All the really cool companies have Gear at the end of their name.  Maybe you should change the name of your company to FogGear!  You're not cool if you don't!

Bitter

Hmph.  IIRC, when we chose the name SourceGear, we tried to register codegear.com as well, but it wasn't available at the time.

Advisory

Wouldn't CodeBeer have been a better choice?  The domain is available.

Veterinary

Okay, I've lost count.  If Borland were a cat, would this be its 8th life or its 9th?

Skeptical

Nick Hodges says:  "We are our own company.  We decide how to run our business. We decide what products to release.  We decide how to market our products.  We decide what our budgets will be.  We decide how many people are on the R&D, QA, sales, support teams.  We decide.  No one else.  That feels really good.  Believe me."

Every company is accountable to and subject to the direction of its owners.  No exceptions.  I understand that CodeGear is being structured as an autonomous, independent, separate company, but it is still owned by Borland, and is ultimately under Borland's control.

Snide

Cool!  Three years from now when SourceGear acquires CodeGear, merging the brands will be simple!

Bilingual

I think the conjugation of their name actually works better than ours:  codegeo, codegeas, codegea, codegeamos, codegeĆ”is, codegean

Friendly

I agree with Larry O'Brien.  To me, this seems like a big deal for the software industry.  CodeGear has some excellent products, and hopefully they have created enough detachment from Borland for those products to become successful again.  I wish them the best of luck.

Prophetic

Obviously they failed in their first attempt to sell DevCo, but CodeGear is still for sale.  This move is just an intermediate step.  If CodeGear does well, it'll be back on the block within two years.

Disappointed

Hmmm.  I've been waiting for the DevCo spinoff, expecting it to be a company with whom SourceGear would want to partner (whereas Borland really isn't).  But now, the similarity of the two names makes me pause and think.  If SourceGear and CodeGear were working together on something, wouldn't that merely increase the confusion?

Approving

Nick Hodges says:  "We are a company wholly and totally focused on developers."

Welcome [back] to the world of selling products for developers who choose their own tools.  This is SourceGear's path as well.  Lots of companies prefer to sell products for developers whose tools are chosen for them.  Your parent company is one example.  That strategy can be quite lucrative, but it's not very satisfying.

Stubborn

Regardless of what the new company is called, I still think it was a big mistake to stir the .NET stuff into the Delphi soup.  It's great that CodeGear is focused on developers, but that focus still isn't sharp enough.  You guys need to get your strategy and positioning really tight and prune everything that doesn't fit.

Naughty

SourceGear will soon be announcing a compiler/IDE product built on a Pascal-style language called Belphi.

Sympathetic

Sometimes it's not much fun to have a company name which is spelled with CamelCase.  When you get sick of people spelling it "Codegear", call me to commiserate.

Competitive

Of all the dev tools companies that have Gear at the end of their name, I wonder which one will have the most revenue in five years?

Irrelevant

You guys do realize your name is an anagram for GEODE CAR, right?

Optimistic

The name similarity will definitely cause confusion, but even though SourceGear has had its name longer, CodeGear probably still has a much larger audience, so perhaps the confusion will work in our favor.

Cinematic

When they make the movie version of the full history of Borland/Inprise/CodeGear, they'll get Leonardo DiCaprio to play Nick Hodges, but what part will Kate Winslet play?

:-)