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From: mwest@cruzio.com (Michael West)
Subject: Re: Merger of Easel with VMARK is a big plus for Smalltalk ...
Organization: Wire Wind Ink
Date: Thu, 9 Feb 1995 01:30:42 GMT
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In article <3h8fto$mdv@news1.delphi.com>, jsutherland@BIX.com (Jeff
Sutherland) wrote:

> >> Estimate revenues for 1995 are $80-100M.  This is our way of becoming a
> >> $100M company which is what we think we need to compete in the
> >> client/server marketplace (not just the Smalltalk market).
> >> 
> >> The net result is that VMARK/Easel will become in 1995:
> >> 
> >> * The largest Smalltalk vendor (except for IBM)
> >> * The fastest growing Smalltalk vendor (including IBM)
> >> * The most profitable Smalltalk vendor (including IBM's Smalltalk division)
> >> ...
> >> Our customers asked for a more financially stable Easel.  We are now,
> >> arguably, the most financially stable Smalltalk vendor.
> >> 
> >> The technical community asked us to fix things they didn't like about ENFIN
> >> Smalltalk.  We now have more resources to do this.
> >> Jeff Sutherland
> >
> >Jeff,
> >I think the problem is this: the ESL product line has been an albatross,
> >and you would have done better to kill or sell off or spin out ENFINy as a
> >separate VC-backed company.  The acquisiton does give you some revenue
> >base to work from, but who in the large enterprise market for tools is
> >familiar with VMARK, and does VMARK really possess the marketing skills to
> >make a difference for you guys?  Okay UNIX is cool, but is that going to
> >be big business for you?  I would think VMARK may have to come up to speed
> >on the realities of 1) large IS markets and 2) Microsoft-dominated
> >desktops.
> >
> >Mike West
> 
> Mike, we appreciate the help you and Gartner Group gave us with the
> investment community.  There is high interest in investing in ENFIN
> Smalltalk 95 because it leverages Smalltalk tremendously by being compliant
> with OLE2/COM and Microsoft's C++ foundation classes.  Interoperability
> with all vendors who support OLE, particularly those who are not Smalltalk
> vendors, gives us a nice entry into mission critical, client/server
> environments that are dominated by Windows clients (70% of them according
> to Client/Server Today, Feb 95, p56).
> 
> VMARK liked this story as much as the VCs.  The VC community could have
> been a nice way to go, but they want to evaluate the beta version of ENFIN
> Smalltalk 95 which is not shipping yet.  Then they typically go through a
> three to six month cycle to figure out what they want to do.
> 
> Meanwhile, your Gartner Group publication says that Object Studio is the
> leading contender among current Smalltalk product lines for enterprise
> client/server development, but Easel's financial condition makes investing
> in this tool set risky, except for technology aggressive companies.
> 
> In order to resolve the issue you raised, and not wait six months, the
> Easel board took the aggressive strategy of becoming immediately:
> 
> 1. The largest Smalltalk vendor
> 2. The fastest growing Smalltalk vendor
> 3. The most profitable Smalltalk vendor
> 
> I am confident that VMARK will provide the capital necessary to do what the
> VCs would have done and, in addition, they provide engineering expertise
> and third party VAR channels that the VCs could not have given us.  They
> also have a strong international presence which complements our
> international offices in a number of important countries.
> 
> As for our ESL 4GL product, that has been, and will continue to be a
> separate business unit surviving on its own merits, and totally independent
> of Object Studio.   The problem you refer to no longer exists when we
> change the name of the company because the company name will no longer be
> the same as the name of the older product.
> 
> Mike, you gave us the financial issue to deal with when we met in December
> at Gartner Group headquarters.  We solved it in less than 60 days.  You can
> hardly fault us for this, even if there are other good alternatives.  
> 
> Jeff Sutherland
> "C++ runs slightly faster than Smalltalk but a lot later!"
> jsutherland@easel.com (via Galahad BIX blinker)


Jeff,
No doubt the capital is welcome and the engineering and VAR support will
also help,
but as I said before, I remain interested in seeing how successful VMark
will be in
Large IS organizations.
Mike

-- 
Mike
