Qualcomm Buys Now Software -- Qualcomm, the wireless communications company best known in the Macintosh world for Eudora, today announced its acquisition of Now Software, makers of Now Utilities and Now Up-to-Date. Now Software had seemingly been in a slump of late, claiming that it lacked the engineering resources to update Now Utilities for Mac OS 8, so the acquisition comes at a good time for them. The press release noted that "Qualcomm intends to support Now's flagship products," so we hope that means an update to Now Utilities, although a Qualcomm representative was unable to share any details with us. More interesting is what Qualcomm gets out of the deal since Now's products don't obviously fit the Eudora division's focus on email. Rumor has it that Now is working on a revolutionary technology along the lines of the Now Synchronize data synchronization software. Qualcomm must have been attracted by the thought of synchronizing email and schedules across multiple platforms, including Macs, PCs, Newtons, PalmPilots, and Qualcomm's cellular phones. Although Qualcomm plans to keep Now Software's Portland, Oregon office open, the Eudora division has reorganized in the wake of the acquisition. We will miss one of the layoff casualties - tester Gary Nash, who was a fixture at Mac trade shows and user group presentations and who helped anchor the Macintosh Eudora mailing list. [ACE]
<http://www.eudora.com/press/1997/pr97.cgi? f=97.11.10.now>
<http://www.nowutilities.com/os8.html>