Originally Posted by ISB
Maybe Meridian saw that v3 could have a much larger market than being within the MDMS, and that efforts to try and sell it as a software products to other customers (such as Linn) would represent a channel conflict. Spinning it off into a separate company, provided it's seen as being (or is) independent, would open up the wider market. If so, I assume that Meridian would be paid for the I/P directly or via licensing.

As MDMS users, this may be materially no different than what we might have seen if v3 had stayed within Meridian - they might have asked for a lifetime or annual fee for a major upgrade anyhow. It wouldn't be different from most software then - you can stick with v2.x and just get maintenance updates or pay for the new v3 to get new features.
I rarely quote stuff in replies but these two paragraphs are really where my thoughts are at. Good points Ian.

If you have to invest several $m to develop a new media engine and platform, then even if this was always going to be a paid-for option, then existing and new Sooloos customers would never be enough to recoup this development cost. The cost will not be small if you only think of a small ream of say 5 salaries for 2-3 years plus new licence costs for the 3rd bits they will need.

The best way to manage this is to widen the market and give the new tool some independence. This means a stronger and more viable platform than otherwise.

Rgds,
Nick