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Qt-interest Archive, January 2008
Nokia to acquire Trolltech

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Message 1 in thread

Dear Qt community,

Nokia and Trolltech have just announced that we have agreed that Nokia 
will make a public tender offer to acquire Trolltech. Trolltech's management 
and board of directors support Nokia's offer. We felt it was important to 
directly inform you about this.

You can find more information about the offer at 
http://www.trolltech.com/nokia-offer. Both a letter to our customers and a 
letter to the open source community can be found there.

We are very excited about this, and see this as a great opportunity for 
Qt as a technology.

With best regards,
Eirik Chambe-Eng, Chief Troll and co-founder, Trolltech

--
 [ signature omitted ] 

Message 2 in thread

Interesting that the Chief Troll posts a message with an invalid URL  
(at least it is right now - hopefully the real tech trolls will fix  
it). Just another indicator of the declining quality control...

On Jan 28, 2008, at 1:08 AM, Eirik Chambe-Eng wrote:

> Dear Qt community,
>
> Nokia and Trolltech have just announced that we have agreed that Nokia
> will make a public tender offer to acquire Trolltech. Trolltech's  
> management
> and board of directors support Nokia's offer. We felt it was  
> important to
> directly inform you about this.
>
> You can find more information about the offer at
> http://www.trolltech.com/nokia-offer. Both a letter to our customers  
> and a
> letter to the open source community can be found there.
>
> We are very excited about this, and see this as a great opportunity  
> for
> Qt as a technology.
>
> With best regards,
> Eirik Chambe-Eng, Chief Troll and co-founder, Trolltech
>
> --
> To unsubscribe - send a mail to qt-interest-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx  
> with "unsubscribe" in the subject or the body.
> List archive and information: http://lists.trolltech.com/qt-interest/
>
>

--
 [ signature omitted ] 

Message 3 in thread

And now that the link to the page is working, the links to the  
documents are messed up (the "Letter to Trolltech Customers" link  
opens the "Open letter to KDE and the Open Source community - Joint  
announcement" document). Yet another quality control blunder. You'd  
think that with such an important announcement, they would at least  
test this stuff out first.

On Jan 28, 2008, at 1:27 AM, Michael Rice wrote:

> Interesting that the Chief Troll posts a message with an invalid URL  
> (at least it is right now - hopefully the real tech trolls will fix  
> it). Just another indicator of the declining quality control...
>
> On Jan 28, 2008, at 1:08 AM, Eirik Chambe-Eng wrote:
>
>> Dear Qt community,
>>
>> Nokia and Trolltech have just announced that we have agreed that  
>> Nokia
>> will make a public tender offer to acquire Trolltech. Trolltech's  
>> management
>> and board of directors support Nokia's offer. We felt it was  
>> important to
>> directly inform you about this.
>>
>> You can find more information about the offer at
>> http://www.trolltech.com/nokia-offer. Both a letter to our  
>> customers and a
>> letter to the open source community can be found there.
>>
>> We are very excited about this, and see this as a great opportunity  
>> for
>> Qt as a technology.
>>
>> With best regards,
>> Eirik Chambe-Eng, Chief Troll and co-founder, Trolltech
>>
>> --
>> To unsubscribe - send a mail to qt-interest-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx  
>> with "unsubscribe" in the subject or the body.
>> List archive and information: http://lists.trolltech.com/qt-interest/
>>
>>
>
> --
> To unsubscribe - send a mail to qt-interest-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx  
> with "unsubscribe" in the subject or the body.
> List archive and information: http://lists.trolltech.com/qt-interest/
>
>

--
 [ signature omitted ] 

Message 4 in thread

Quoting Michael Rice <michaelarice@xxxxxxxxxxx>:

> And now that the link to the page is working, the links to the
> documents are messed up (the "Letter to Trolltech Customers" link
> opens the "Open letter to KDE and the Open Source community - Joint
> announcement" document). Yet another quality control blunder. You'd
> think that with such an important announcement, they would at least
> test this stuff out first.
Try here:

http://trolltech.com/28012008/28012008-custletter/view

A+
Paul
-- 
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Message 5 in thread

Dear Trolltech,

I'm very disappointed about that. Don't you know what Nokia has done or is doing here in
Germany?
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3083173,00.html
In short: They received over 80 million euros in state and federal subsidies and now, as
the are not longer receiving this, they decided to slash 2300 jobs and move to Romania.

Please do not do this!

-- 
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Message 6 in thread

Dnia poniedziaÅek, 28 stycznia 2008, Michael Sprauer napisaÅ:
> Dear Trolltech,
>
> I'm very disappointed about that. Don't you know what Nokia has done or is
> doing here in Germany?
> http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3083173,00.html
> In short: They received over 80 million euros in state and federal
> subsidies and now, as the are not longer receiving this, they decided to
> slash 2300 jobs and move to Romania.

As far as I know your native companies doing the same, so I don't understand 
why Nokia is this the worst from the worst...

Anyway... this group is not for such discussions.

Regards,
-- 
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Message 7 in thread


>>> RafaÅ Cygnarowski <zswi@xxxxxxx> 01/28/08 9:24 AM >>> 
Dnia poniedziaÅek, 28 stycznia 2008, Michael Sprauer napisaÅ:
> Dear Trolltech,
>
> I'm very disappointed about that. Don't you know what Nokia has done
or is
> doing here in Germany?
> http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3083173,00.html
> In short: They received over 80 million euros in state and federal
> subsidies and now, as the are not longer receiving this, they decided
to
> slash 2300 jobs and move to Romania.

As far as I know your native companies doing the same, so I don't
understand 
why Nokia is this the worst from the worst...

Anyway... this group is not for such discussions.

Regards,
-- 
 [ signature omitted ] 

Message 8 in thread

Dear Trolls,

I've been a great fan and supporter of Qt in the past since 1998, but I
think you should really think again before making such a decision... at
least here in Germany you will definitely lose some of your good reputation
if "bug business" is the new and only goal. Yes, Nokia isn't the only
company that's greedy for money, but their business decisions are obviously
neither technology driven, nor for the employees or customers, nor are they
reasonable... their decisions are only driven by the greed of their
shareholders.

On the technical side, I really hope Trolltech will continue their great job
and the way they used to support the community.

I also think that this should be discussed here. This is just my opinion.
Don't blame others :).

Have fun, René
-- 
 [ signature omitted ] 

Message 9 in thread

> Dear Trolltech,
> 
> I'm very disappointed about that. Don't you know what Nokia has done or is
> doing here in
> Germany?
> http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3083173,00.html
> In short: They received over 80 million euros in state and federal
> subsidies and now, as
> the are not longer receiving this, they decided to slash 2300 jobs and
> move to Romania.
> 
> Please do not do this!
> 
> --
> Mit freundlichen Grüßen/Kind regards
> Michael Sprauer

Well... I must say, this is a sad event... While I can understand that this is probably necessary for TT to survive... whats sad, is what it may truly represent... That a dual license company cant survive and be profitable to stand on its own... Even with the 30M USD or so they had in income, they needed more money to survive....  

My technology concern... and this will happen.. it may not happen tomorrow.. or 6 months from now.. but it will, as it always does with targeted acquistions...

The parent company, will overtime focus the baby company towards technologies that are focused for them... Nokia does NOT need TTs revenue... the 41 billion eu it brings in on its own...  So obviously they want nokia centric technology... and over time... when the dollars and cents don't support having non-nokia technology... Do you really think nokia is going to support qtopia running on say... a Motorola phone? Or a Samsung?  Using QT for their "windows" apps which bring in no revenue is not worth the cost of admission (heck... licenses aren't that expensive)

Want an example of whats to come... Take a look at the Tcl/TK system when it got acquired, dismanteled, re-put together by Sun...

O well... time to branch the opensource code base and support it outside ?

Scott


--
 [ signature omitted ] 

Message 10 in thread

But Qt is under GPL too. If there is a problem, a fork is possible. But I
don't think there is a problem.

2008/1/28, Scott Aron Bloom <Scott.Bloom@xxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>
> > Dear Trolltech,
> >
> > I'm very disappointed about that. Don't you know what Nokia has done or
> is
> > doing here in
> > Germany?
> > http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3083173,00.html
> > In short: They received over 80 million euros in state and federal
> > subsidies and now, as
> > the are not longer receiving this, they decided to slash 2300 jobs and
> > move to Romania.
> >
> > Please do not do this!
> >
> > --
> > Mit freundlichen Grüßen/Kind regards
> > Michael Sprauer
>
> Well... I must say, this is a sad event... While I can understand that
> this is probably necessary for TT to survive... whats sad, is what it may
> truly represent... That a dual license company cant survive and be
> profitable to stand on its own... Even with the 30M USD or so they had in
> income, they needed more money to survive....
>
> My technology concern... and this will happen.. it may not happen
> tomorrow.. or 6 months from now.. but it will, as it always does with
> targeted acquistions...
>
> The parent company, will overtime focus the baby company towards
> technologies that are focused for them... Nokia does NOT need TTs revenue...
> the 41 billion eu it brings in on its own...  So obviously they want nokia
> centric technology... and over time... when the dollars and cents don't
> support having non-nokia technology... Do you really think nokia is going to
> support qtopia running on say... a Motorola phone? Or a Samsung?  Using QT
> for their "windows" apps which bring in no revenue is not worth the cost of
> admission (heck... licenses aren't that expensive)
>
> Want an example of whats to come... Take a look at the Tcl/TK system when
> it got acquired, dismanteled, re-put together by Sun...
>
> O well... time to branch the opensource code base and support it outside ?
>
> Scott
>
>
> --
> To unsubscribe - send a mail to qt-interest-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with
> "unsubscribe" in the subject or the body.
> List archive and information: http://lists.trolltech.com/qt-interest/
>
>


-- 
 [ signature omitted ] 

Message 11 in thread

Yes.. I mention the fork.. I happen to call it a branch... I sure hope it works out.. but I think the cards are stacked against it.


Scott

 

________________________________

From: Florent Morin [mailto:morinflorent@xxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Monday, January 28, 2008 5:18 AM
To: qt-interest@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Nokia to acquire Trolltech

 

But Qt is under GPL too. If there is a problem, a fork is possible. But I don't think there is a problem.

2008/1/28, Scott Aron Bloom <Scott.Bloom@xxxxxxxxxxxx>:

> Dear Trolltech,
>
> I'm very disappointed about that. Don't you know what Nokia has done or is
> doing here in
> Germany?
> http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3083173,00.html
> In short: They received over 80 million euros in state and federal
> subsidies and now, as
> the are not longer receiving this, they decided to slash 2300 jobs and
> move to Romania.
>
> Please do not do this!
>
> --
> Mit freundlichen Grüßen/Kind regards
> Michael Sprauer

Well... I must say, this is a sad event... While I can understand that this is probably necessary for TT to survive... whats sad, is what it may truly represent... That a dual license company cant survive and be profitable to stand on its own... Even with the 30M USD or so they had in income, they needed more money to survive....

My technology concern... and this will happen.. it may not happen tomorrow.. or 6 months from now.. but it will, as it always does with targeted acquistions...

The parent company, will overtime focus the baby company towards technologies that are focused for them... Nokia does NOT need TTs revenue... the 41 billion eu it brings in on its own...  So obviously they want nokia centric technology... and over time... when the dollars and cents don't support having non-nokia technology... Do you really think nokia is going to support qtopia running on say... a Motorola phone? Or a Samsung?  Using QT for their "windows" apps which bring in no revenue is not worth the cost of admission (heck... licenses aren't that expensive)

Want an example of whats to come... Take a look at the Tcl/TK system when it got acquired, dismanteled, re-put together by Sun...

O well... time to branch the opensource code base and support it outside ?

Scott


--
 [ signature omitted ] 

Message 12 in thread

If this should ever be needed, I'll be one of the supporters of this branch!
I also think that this is not yet required, but we should start to keep an
eye on it...

On Mon, January 28, 2008 11:26, Scott Aron Bloom wrote:
> Yes.. I mention the fork.. I happen to call it a branch... I sure hope it
> works out.. but I think the cards are stacked against it.

Regards, René
-- 
 [ signature omitted ] 

Message 13 in thread

Quoting "R. Reucher" <rene.reucher@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

I think people are talking too fast here.

First of all, should there be a need to branch Qt, there is the KDE  
Free Qt Foundation: http://www.kde.org/whatiskde/kdefreeqtfoundation.php

Second, I'm certainly worried but my reasons are different than other  
people's reasons. What I'm worried about is the erratic strategy Nokia  
has had with the mobile market: first Nokia started Mozilla Minimo,  
only to orphan and discard it a couple of years later; then Nokia  
started Maemo, based on Gtk, which happens to be the "arch-enemy" of  
Qt when we talk about cross-platform; and at the same time Nokia has  
been playing with Opera and Symbian. What happens if Qtopia is not the  
revulsive Nokia expects it to be? Will Qt and Qtopia just languish  
forever until taken over by the KDE Free Qt Foundation?

Anyways, let's wait and see what happens. One thing that is not clear  
so far is how much control will Nokia have over Trolltech. Will it be  
a 100% separated division, with its own management, roadmap and  
everything (much like ActiveState when Sophos bought it)? or will it  
be merged into Nokia, effectively brainwashing Trolltech into Nokia?  
If the former, no ISV need worry, even if Nokia competitors. If the  
latter, I predict tough times for ISVs using Qt for desktop  
applications.


> If this should ever be needed, I'll be one of the supporters of this branch!
> I also think that this is not yet required, but we should start to keep an
> eye on it...
>
> On Mon, January 28, 2008 11:26, Scott Aron Bloom wrote:
>> Yes.. I mention the fork.. I happen to call it a branch... I sure hope it
>> works out.. but I think the cards are stacked against it.
>
> Regards, René
> --
> René Reucher
> Tel: +49 160 7115802
> FAX: +49 6359 205423
> rene.reucher@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> http://www.batcom-it.net/
>
> --
> To unsubscribe - send a mail to qt-interest-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx   
> with "unsubscribe" in the subject or the body.
> List archive and information: http://lists.trolltech.com/qt-interest/
>
>



-- 
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Message 14 in thread

Hello,

Consider a company X using Qt services to provide an interface for a sub-notebook. As the differences between cell phones and sub-notebooks gets blurred, and with this acquisition, would this company X not be using the services of a direct competitor? I see a conflict of interest here?

Christopher
_________________________________________________________________

--
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Message 15 in thread

> Nokia and Trolltech have just announced that we have agreed that Nokia
> will make a public tender offer to acquire Trolltech. Trolltech's
> management and board of directors support Nokia's offer. We felt it was
> important to directly inform you about this.

I can't feel any happyness... what will happen to the sources of QT? What will 
happen to the Trolltech Team? What about KDE? 
- and will will happen to *us*?

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