Off-Topic: Parallels owned by SWsoft??

[rcardona2k]

Fortune's cnn story

http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/19/technology/fastforward_parallels.fortune/index.htm

Ben's blog post: http://parallelsvirtualization.blogspot.com/2007/01/parallels-swsoft-one-stop-shopping-for_22.html

(Yes, part of this story is historical with virtualization.info's coverage of Serguei Beloussov's holdings)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/infoworld/20070122/tc_infoworld/85316

Parallels acknowledges ownership by SWSoft

Elizabeth Montalbano

Parallels, which makes Parallels Desktop for Mac software, acknowledged Monday that it is owned by SWSoft after a report in Fortune magazine broke news of the relationship between the companies.

Parallels Desktop for Mac software has won kudos from critics and users, but the general perception of the company was that it was a startup success story. SWsoft's ownership of the company changes that view.

SWSoft, a company that focuses on server-side virtualization, "quietly" purchased Parallels three years ago, said Benjamin Rudolph, a Parallels spokesman. However, Parallels has operated as an independent company since then and will continue to do so, he said.

A joint press statement by Serguei Beloussov, CEO of SWsoft, and Nick Dobrovolskiy, CEO of Parallels, also acknowledged SWsoft's purchase of Parallels but said the companies will continue to focus on different segments of the virtualization market.

"About virtualization specifically, management of both companies has always believed that these different types of virtualization each has its own advantages," the CEOs said in the statement. "And both types can work side-by-side for maximum benefit."

SWsoft is backed by investment from well-known venture capital firms Intel Capital, Insight Venture Partners, and Bessemer Venture Partners.

[tirmidi]

I always suspected Parallels was a communist conspiracy to take over our Macs. This also explains the Soviet-era approach to quality control and customer service.

Thank goodness for VMWare.

[atkjones]

I can see the headline now:

"Xenophobia hits the Virtualisation Market"

[tirmidi]

I can see the headline now:

"Xenophobia hits the Virtualisation Market"

I don't think so. It's only virtual xenophobia.

[atkjones]

I'm testing both, Parallels & Fusion.

Parallels is big on features but I think Fusion shades it on speed and simplicity of design, that's my subjective opinion.

We can make a better assessment once both have been properly released.

[rcardona2k]

>We can make a better assessment once both have been properly released.

I think we all will be doing this. Ordinarily, the rest of the virtualization market, e.g. enterprise, would not care about marketshare or dynamics between two virtualization players in a "5% marketshare" space, e.g. Mac.

The more interesting aspect is the new unified "flank" that's formed around VMware, namely SWsoft-Parallels (and any other Beloussov stealth-holdings like Acronis). This 'virtually' new competitor is more formidable: from the workstation to the enterprise, across Windows, Linux and Mac. IMO, SWsoft-Parallels is making a much larger run to grow their presence.

Do consumers know/care about the big picture? At the Mac microscopic level that depends largely on who becomes the customer: iLife masses or existing customers who want a complete story from top-to-bottom. But there's an interesting symbiosis between the consumer market and the enterprise. Certainly a 'winner' won't settled by Fusion 1.0 vs Parallels whatever version is out by mid-year. But it's an interesting new landscape to watch.

[csoto]

I agree. I am particularly interested in Fusion, not really because of features or performance, but rather because of ridiculously simple interoperability between it and our existing and prolific VMware (VI3, Workstation and Player) infrastructure. But does that matter to Joe Average and his need to run some Windows apps or Linux? Nope. I'll heartily recommend Parallels Desktop to such users, particularly if it retains the build quality exhibited by even the public betas, and it stays competitively priced (catalog vendors are bundling it with new Macs!). Here's hoping that VMware benefits from that competition!