I'm glad that Rick shone some practical light on this comapny's dilemma. I don't know much about this company and do not use any of its products. But 10 minutes of research on Sonic Foundry's financial situation and background revealed that "greed" is not the issue here. As Rick suggested, the situation is "fear". This is a very tiny ("micro-cap") company that has little prospect of surviving, let alone thriving, if it doesn't take actions now. With only $14 mil in market capitalization and its shares trading at $0.51 nobody's going to get rich from this venture.

Vilifying business people has become a favorite spectator sport, packaged and sold by the media in much the same way that they sell people music, cars, professional sports and clothing. But it's just plain damn wrong to indict someone categorically with little or no knowledge of the matters at hand. Perhaps SOFO had a poor business plan, perhaps their management is inept, perhaps many other possibilities led them to this juncture. But to declare this tiny company's management to be the same ilk as some of the scoundrels that the media has paraded past us lately is just thoughtless band-wagonning.

Thanx for the voice of reason, Ken.
I appreciate it. The sad part is that Sonic Foundry has been a company that literally bent over backwards to listen to its customers and try to give them what they wanted. Unlike some of these other companies, like Adobe or Creative, who give a tinker's damn for what their paying public wants and needs.

The deal is for $8.2 million in cash and $15.8 million in Pinnacle Systems common stock. Even with the cash I doubt they can make a go of it. I would expect Pinnacle systems to buy the remnants in a year or two.

Jeff

With the stock trading so low the complete buy-out may actually happen much sooner if NASDAQ de-lists them, an inevitabllity if it continues to fall and liquidity in SOFO shares evaporates.

Panasonic' New Compact, Low-Cost 3-Chip DLP Projector
 

I came across this interesting news release, dated December 2, 2002. Digital linear projection appears to be on its way towards ubiquity.

http://www.panasonic.com/PBDS/subcat...01/01_158.html

THat'd work pretty nice in my rec room. Is there a price for it? I didn't see one.

US$23,000 for the PT-D7600U and US$30,000 for the PT-D7500U. Not quite priced for most homes but certainly a modest price for a public theater.