This is terrible news. I just bought VV:( Wish I had looked at the financials before purchasing. Oh well, VV3 does what I need it too, I just hate the thought of buying a dead end product(been there, done that). Hopefully the buyer will actually be interested in continuing the product and not just killing it.

Here we go... 60 days of speculation to look forward to on these forums. :(

M

This is terrible news. I just bought VV snip:
Hopefully the buyer will actually be interested in continuing the product and not just killing it.
-------------------------
Oh well, so much for US not speculating. Guess we will all know in less than 60 days. Please, let's not start going crazy on this development.

Craig H.

Holy explicative, never mind the debt, how the hell can they stem the loss? I thought those catalogs were waay too wasteful. (I think an earlier analysis I made of the company's market was probably right and they never hit it.)

Boy I'd like to see their balance sheet to know where all that money's leaking from. I'll also bet bootlegging is costing them half their margin. But let's do a little math here: 200 employees, 56 million dollars of red, that's a cool 600 grand per employee, before adding dollar one of revenue. That's high in anyone's book and the implication is . . . Need another catalog? Have another catalog. Look -- new! Acid 4.0. Check out all them (New!) sample disks.

Sonic Foundry is taking a BIG stock hit like nearly everybody else that's listed on any exchange. That's NOT becuase SoFo is doing anything wrong. The market is just tough right now.
Any company that buys the assets of Sound Forge, Vegas, ACID, etc., is going to be interested in a return on that asset investment. WE are a part of the equation. WE are the people that buy improved products.
I just hope this Forum stays in place. I learn more from this group than any other Forum or manual!
I'm going to chill until this plays out then deal with the results.
Steve

If it's going to be bought, maybe Ulead should buy it. Their NLE sucks, and it would be a great acquisition for them. If SoFo reads these forums, best of luck to you, and thanks for a great product!

God forbid Ulead--worst customer support I have experienced--check out there release of Cool Studio 3D--takes a decade to render a two second clip.

yeah... i have ulead's dvd workshop. i like the program (with the exception of a few bugs), but they have NO customer service. and, if you do call someone, it's a crap shoot as to if you get a polite rep or a jerk.

-cu

Thats because they are based in the Far East and I think they contract out customer care in the US--so stupid.

Xgenei,

Well, I read a few of your posts. Very Impressive.
I, unfortunately am not responsible for designing multi-million dollar Information Systems, nor am I qualified to conclude that Sonic Foundry's present financial conditions were caused from Product Catalog expenses, and inadequate antipiracy efforts. Instead, I'll leave these complex assessments to accredited business professionals who know exactly what they're doing -- Arthur Anderson Consultants.

So, you'd "love to see their balance sheet". Are you sure? Why bother yourself with facts, grandstanding is much easier when you makeup your own.

So before another person jumps on the soap box to continue playing general after the war, please consider using the facts. I know how difficult it is to find information through the internet on publicly traded companies (must be one of those KM issues), so here, I'll post the links.

2000-01 Annual Reports (Source - Sonic Foundry Site, Doh...)

2002 10Q 2nd Quarter Report (Source SEC)

All SEC Filings (Source SEC)

Regarding Ulead as a potential buyer, I'm not going to speculate either way. I just wanted to point out the facts -- Ulead 12/10/02 Press Release MediaStudio Pro 7. According to the press release it seems they are continuing to integrate the DVD Authoring with their NLE.

jeffy82@aol.com

Good points, Jeffy82. I was naming Ulead as a company that could really use a NLE like Vegas to firm-up their product line, not so much as an endoresment of them.

I'm sure a sell-off of Vegas, if it happens, would include an update to 4. They'd have a built-in base of VV3 users that might upgrade, and that would make the acquisition more profitable.

Geez MyST,
Give the guy a break...maybe it's news to him...The title of the thread is a dead givaway as to it's content. If you hate it, don't read it. If you read it, don't complain because you did.
The only thing I find more annoying than all the speculation that *has* already happened are all the people who keep coming to these posts, leaving replies, then acting like they're soooo tired of hearing about it.

James W. Green

If we are lucky NewTek (the Toaster guys) will buy them and offer VV as an editor for their frame buffer hardware (Toaster II).

?????
James, which one of my posts are you referring to?

Thanks for the links if they work and I'll probably take a look (I'm kind of bummed by this revelation).

Here's a suggestion for you though -- you're wrong. I will spare myself the pain of ripping into your logically lame statement except to say that you seem like a believer in the grey-suits. I am hypercritical -- it solves the stickiest probs -- and like a fresh approach. You on seem to think people who have different perspectives (or mental processes) should shut the **** up. I'd be reluctant to put that attitude in the shipping department.

"Here we go... 60 days of speculation to look forward to on these forums. :(

M"

James Green

Hmmmm...
My post wasn't a direct reply to his original post. It was a statement of what I thought was going to happen. That for the next 60 days, there will be speculation a plenty because of the uncertainty of this situation. It was never meant as a complaint, sorry you took it that way. It was meant to be a post in a thread I wanted to participate in.
Either what I wrote didn't reflect what I meant, or you took it the wrong way. Either way...Sorry if it offended.

M

I agree it is somewhat disconcerting that SFO may be assimilated by ULEAD or (shudder) Adobe. However, my 3 SF6s, 2 VV3s, 2 Vegas Audios, 3 Noise Reduction, and 2 Acid Music Pro 3s are all "boxed" and I have all the updates and activation codes on CDRs. If they went out of business completely I'd still have the products here and at the studio and can likely use them for years to come. At work we use SF6 and Vegas Audio to finalize the AVID's audio tracks (AVID's audio tool is truly awful) and I think also Batch Converter to make wave files into WMAs and MP3s. If SFO disappears I guess we're stuck with Protools or something similar. I'm not spending any more money on upgrades until I read on this forum, perhaps 6 months hence, that VV3 and SF6 are still supported and can be upgraded.

In the case of Vegas, an activation code would not overcome the need to register a repaired installation (or installation onto a new computer/replaced-upgraded HD, etc) online. The installation would time-out after 15 days or whatever.

There was a register key file that you could get, depending on how you registered, but I doubt that would work if you had to replace upgrade the computer and re-install.

Don't know for sure.

Caruso

Good point! Guess we all better hope Sony buys the audio and video tools ,thus ensuring longevity of our investments. I mentioned in an earlier post we have invested heavily in SFO stuff.

PEter

Your peeing in the wind.
There are back door keys to just about all programs no matter what the install situation.

Don't worry, be happy.
Let life unfold and know your place in the web.

"Elementary my Dear Watson!" Yessss . . . but - eeerrr where?

Grazie

ps : I'm naturally one of life's upbeats anyway - dah de dah . .