Yesterday my long time good friend and colleague Richard pinged me with a weird looking web address: www.embarcadero.com
When receiving such an address, there must be a reason... could it have some funny jokes or ahrm... pictures... in it... Richard usually dont send such links to me.. (hmm... I wonder if he keeps those to himself 
.....Just kidding 
). So it had to have something to do with what we do.
The name itself didnt ring many bells to me... but that can be because I have been living under a stone for a couple of years coding. Anyway.. I clicked it.
While the web page builds up I notice.. hmm... there is a cool tool... and there is another... but what have that to do with me or us?
Then suddenly a text written in relatively small font showed up... Embarcadero have bought CodeGear... a few secs... WHAATT!!!! Is this April fools day?.. checking the calender... and year... nah... its indeed just any other normal day.
First impression were... a tools company not much different (although slightly bigger I admit) than us, bought CodeGear! How on earth can that happen. The mouse ate the elefant. We are DOOMED!
Well... then it was time to a second go on what exactly was Embarcadero (couldnt they have named it something pronounsable?.. and writable...my fingers are making knots trying to type it 
).
Reading over what it was all about, then it shows that Embarcadero is a relatively big company, actually people wise bigger than CodeGear (but they have certainly not being making any fuzz about that in the media Im reading), and whats more important is that Embarcadero is just one of several private companies owned by a huge private investment company. Hence we are suddenly now talking about money backing of proportions that would make Borland have wet dreams in night.
Ok.. money and size isnt an issue anylonger... but what about the longevity of the CG tools? Could it be a shark attack that results in some technologies being digested and put into other tools, while the rest is discarded?
Only the future knows how it fares, but it certainly do look like Embarcaderos and CodeGears toolsets are extremely complimentary with no direct overlap at all, which indicates that there is a true potential for huge synergies between the companies. They have alot of dedicated and knowledgable developers, and we all knows that CodeGear have the same but on other type developer oriented projects.
Embarcaderos have an organization that contains all the relevant functions for running a developer oriented company, while CodeGear probably have been somewhat amputated in the seperation from Borland, and I could imagine that some administrative and marketing functions within CodeGear either were missing or at least severely limited in manpower. In that scenario, those areas would be naturally strengthened by this acquisition.
As Embarcadero have been targeting a very different vertical market than CodeGear, they also have their feets inside some places where CodeGear would never before have had access, specially related to native development (example Java houses and other non typical areas for CG native tools. Visa versa, Embarcadero now ofcourse have easier access to the many dedicated supporters of CG products, and this way will expect increasing sales of their own products. The total market for most people like us.. 3rdparty tools developers, does seem to open up as the market canvas have now been broadened and the exposure of our products potentially made alot more visible in usually non accessible places.
That should bode well for CodeGear customers too. If the market canvas grows, the potential to earn money for vendors targeting that canvas grows and that ensures stability and progress towards CodeGear customers.
My current take on the situation is that, despite the initially surprising selection of buyer, this is probably the best possible outcome one could dream of.
So ... Very welcome Embarcadero!
I think we all will have a great future together. Delphi, JBuilder, C++Builder now have both the code quality and the market canvas and exposure to really make things happen!
(I will try to get used to writing "Embarcadero".... but boy... CodeGear is easier... will probably have to use the shorthand writing of it... CG vs ET... battle of the galaxians)
I have seen the light.. I have faith!
Kim Madsen
TeamC4D