There were rumors

The word on the street is that illumineX is going to acquire Freshly Squeezed Software, makers of PulpFiction (an RSS reader for the Mac) and some other things. I'm kinda scratching my head at this one, but it seems like it's probably going to end up being legit, or why else would people be posting things like this.

Still, I feel like I'm missing something:

Obviously, making 'falling marble games' for Mac OS X is much more lucrative than my napkin calculations would imply if they're snapping up other companies.
Freshly Squeezed makes more than an RSS reader, but they're primarily little utilities that would seem to have zero connection with what illumineX does, unless I'm missing something in their product portfolio.

Like I said, I'm scratching my head on this buzz, but now that I've had it pointed out to me it would certainly explain part of a bizarre conversation I had with Eric this morning.

Those are almost always a little different, but my accidently tripping into "Uh, why shouldn't I be asking you, you haven't sold the company have you?" would go a long way towards explaining why this one turned so decidedly odd so quickly.

D'oh, I so need to catch up on my feeds.

Posted by drunkenbatman
June 01, 2005, at 05:18 PM

Comments ⁽¹¹⁾

Posted by: Jay Contonio at June 1, 2005 05:33 PM

That is weird. It's like me buying Panic because I do freelance web design.

Posted by: at June 1, 2005 08:40 PM

Well, I think more of the issue here is that Eric likes to create things, then just drop them without giving any more thought to them. He's done this many times in the past. Techstra is a prime example. Basically he does something, hypes it, then either abandons it or tries to sell it off.

Posted by: Anonymous Coward. at June 1, 2005 09:32 PM

I've also had a few strange interactions with Erik. I don't really know what else to say about him, I don't know him very well. I did hear a few months ago that he was doing job interviews or something of the sort. So, maybe he's selling of FSS to make way for a new job. But the "interview" rumors I heard about might have been this very sale.

Posted by: at June 1, 2005 11:19 PM

Cut the guy some slack...he just got married, bought a house and became a stepdad. If that's not reason enough to sell off a biz, I don't know what is.

Posted by: steve coogan at June 2, 2005 01:23 AM

I'm actually surprised that I've developed a rather strong dislike for him just through reading his blog. I don't know what makes me still read it. Because one post in a thousand is actually useful?

The blog has been steadily going downhill for the last 6 months or more. All he talks about is golf, guns, how much money he makes, how big is house will or will not be, etc, etc.

And as for his comment moderation techniques... Reminds me of the children at school who won't let you play with their football unless you obey their silly rules.

Posted by: Susan at June 2, 2005 08:48 AM

I heard he was into field hockey players.

Posted by: l.m.orchard at June 2, 2005 12:12 PM

Susan: That's supposed to be all hush-hush.

Posted by: Eddy at June 2, 2005 01:46 PM

They were so quite about it.

Posted by: drunkenbatman at June 2, 2005 06:05 PM

You know, my day is just so much brighter when someone catches an obtuse pixies reference. Some of you are pinging me about the field hockey player stuff, and it's all just part of a song. :)

Regarding some of the comments about Eric, try to keep it remotely civil. I don't think it's a secret that he's prone to being an asshat when interacting with others and he's made some people not very fond of him, but he did participate in the RSS Roundtable (which is a cool thing) and Pulp Fiction is a solid app.

Posted by: PeterFan at June 5, 2005 01:55 AM

That flushing sound you hear is my Pulp Fiction shareware fee going down the drain. I stopped reading nslog.com when it became a bully pulpit instead of a dialog between a programmer and his users.

Eric can take his balls home for all I care :-)

Posted by: Derek at June 5, 2005 03:14 AM

Erik said on his blog he had meetings in Ohio and Massachusetts. Looking at IllumineX's website shows they're located in Minnesota. Doubt those meetings are linked to anything.

DrunkenBlog