Sybase Buys AvantGo

[Andy Sjostrom]

<a href="http://avantgo.com/news/press/press_archive/2003/release02_26_03.html">http://avantgo.com/news/press/press_archive/2003/release02_26_03.html</a><br /><br />I am not sure if we've discussed the Sybase acquisition of AvantGo here or not. Yesterday, I received an email from the AvantGo marketing team with a link to this <a href="http://avantgo.com/news/press/press_archive/2003/release02_26_03.html">press release</a>. Essentially it says that Sybase finalizes the acquistion of AvantGo and places it in Sybase's iAnywhere Solutions subsidiary. The price of all outstanding shares was $1.029 per share and as a result AvantGo will no longer be publicly traded. As for AvantGo's current services, this is what is said:<br />"iAnywhere Solutions also plans to extend the reach of the AvantGo solutions, including the popular My AvantGo service, via Sybase's worldwide channels and robust partner base. My AvantGo is recognized as one of the world's largest mobile applications, with more than seven million registered users."

[yschang]

does that mean it will not be free in the future?

althought I am paying for it already...

[wm5051]

There will always be a free version of AvantGo. It is in the box for almost every Palm model and it is the ONLY third party application burnt into the ROM of PocketPCs.

AvantGo makes money selling advertising on the device homepage and through content distribution deals with the content providers. Creating a product you have to pay for would reduce the number of users. Fewer users = fewer impressions = fewer advertising dollars.

I would fully expect to see more premium services like the additional meg product they launched a while back and more premium content like the Consumer Reports channels, but the basic service will remain free.

[Jonathon Watkins]

Good, good. Now how about working on viewing the content with cleartype? At least with Mazingo cleartype is enabled, while Advantgo content viewed as default with PIE does not.

[Larry]

Just get RegKing to enable cleartype in PIE. It's very easy.

[Pony99CA]

There will always be a free version of AvantGo. It is in the box for almost every Palm model and it is the ONLY third party application burnt into the ROM of PocketPCs.
Just because the AvantGo client comes in Palm and Pocket PCs doesn't mean the service will always be free. Who cares if you get a free client if you have to pay for the service?

By the way, your last comment isn't strictly true. Many Pocket PCs have other third-party applications burned in ROM, like the Nevo remote on the iPAQ 3900 and 5400 series. You meant that AvantGo was the only third-party application in ROM on all Pocket PCs. :-)

steve

[Jonathon Watkins]

Just get RegKing to enable cleartype in PIE. It's very easy.

No joke! That is a NICE application. Free too. 8)

I got it here:http://www.doctorce.com/regking.htm

It offers some very nice features like shrinking down the system font size and they size of the scroll bars, something I was looking for. Thanks! :D