Wednesday, May 7, 2008

What a day...

Needless to say, it's been a crazy day here at CodeGear. I'm sure the same can be said of the fine folks at Embarcadero. Rather than saying the same things you can read about in all the various outlets and blogs, I figured I'd give folks my impression of how this is affecting the teams here at CodeGear.

At 9am PDT, we held a company "all-hands" meeting here in Scotts Valley, CA. Since this meeting coincided with Borland's earnings announcement, this was not an unusual event. Oh sure, the internal rumors had been flying for months. Folks kept saying that "something is happening." After the usual presentation and outline of the deal, there was an opportunity for a Q&A session with Jim Douglas, the CodeGear CEO. Jim was candid and frank. Like anything that is a major change, there is bound to be some level of nervousness. In this case, the employees were far more engaged in the meeting that I've seen in the past. It seemed that there was this collective sigh of relief among the whole crowd. We finally made it!

Michael Swindell presented information about how this is a great fit for both companies and began outlining a lot of the immediate and long term opportunities. When something fits this well, it's easy for people to just "get it." It's not a tough thing to "sell." If you're a CodeGear customer, I would encourage you to head on over to Embarcadero's site and just browse around and look at what they're offering. You should also take a moment to read this blog post from Greg Keller.

Throughout most of today, intermixed with doing a little bit of coding, I've also been cruising the newsgroups, blogosphere, and other message boards. So far the overall tone is very positive and upbeat. There are lots of questions and concerns. It's only the first day, so I'm sure as folks have a chance to digest what this all means, the real questions will start flowing. Off the top, right now there are no plans to veer from our current roadmaps or to interrupt any current schedules. As a matter of fact, this was the directive given from the Embarcadero folks to make sure we're still on track to deliver what we've committed to.

I also spent some time roaming through the halls here in Scotts Valley.  After the 9am meeting, there was a lot of hallway conversations about what this all means. There was no "hand-wringing" and "angst" among the team that I could see. In fact, most folks were already talking about what Embarcadero does, the products they offer, and how they fit with what we're doing. Those are exactly the conversations we should be having internally. By the afternoon, most of the team had settled back into their routine and the development engine was back running on all cylinders.

So if you have any questions or comments, feel free to let me know and post through the comment system here. As I already stated above, it is business as usual in terms of products, schedules and features. As we approach the final close of this deal, more and more information will become available. So if I cannot answer your question right away, I hope to be able to do so in the coming weeks.

UPDATE: It seems that many of you are already hitting Embarcadero's site.  It appears to be suffering from a mild case of "slashdot effect". This is a good thing. Let's make sure they know how engaged, passionate, and committed the CodeGear customers are.

9 comments:

  1. As a long time Delphi developer I sure hope that this will be a step... no, wait! a giant leap in the right direction.
    I will like to continue my career as a Delphi developer. Heavens knows I have tried but it has become very hard to find good Delphi jobs to continue being a Delphi developer.
    Let us make sure that Delphi (and JBuilder, and Interbase, etc.) is going to continue to provide an viable alternative to Megasoft's way.
    Long live Delphi!

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  2. i think it's great for everybody! (embarcadero, codegear and of course your customers)

    codegear is very lucky to join embarcadero. i've been using erwin in later 90s and more recently er/studio. their products are not just database modelers, their tools are simply the best database tools for database architects, designers, dba(s), you name it. their tools are inspired by long years of hands on database design, in real life projects. their designer is fantastic.

    it's really a great mutual opportunity, lucky you!!!

    cannot wait to see what our future looks like now, in this new light. it must be super cool to be there during exciting times like this.

    regards,
    daniel - a happy customer

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  3. All good news! Congratulations Allen and the rest of the crew.

    Side question, is CG/Embarcadero commitment to the .Net Roadmap still on?

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  4. Will Codegear stick to their Brand Nane/Image? It would not be good if that disappears.

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  5. Just when we thought it was safe to say "Delphi will never survive the long run, it's time to start moving to VS C#" you guys have to go and do something like this. :) This is great news IMO, now the proof will be in what the next 6-12 months bring. Don't let us down!

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  6. That good to hear, we all put lot of hope in embarcadero !

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  7. Esteban -

    The .Net roadmap and our .Net plans are at the top of my to do list right now. Keep your eyes peeled.

    Nick

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  8. >> The .Net roadmap and our .Net plans are at the top of my to do list right now. Keep your eyes peeled.

    That's why we should keep our eyes away from CodeGear. Anyway, good luck.

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  9. The Embarcadero buy looks like a good outcome of the Codegear spin off. A good move for Delphi.

    I like the plan from Greg at Embarcadero to keep the CodeGear name. It will help ease the product line move to Embarcadero.

    Best wishes to you and all the Delphi team at Codegear.

    Doei RIF

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