San Mateo, CA Ð Lighthouse Design went on a buying spree in December, snapping up two orphaned products from now-defunct Appsoft and an image-processing package from Pinnacle Research. But it remained unclear at press time how or even if Lighthouse would use some of the acquired technology.
The acquisitions included the unfinished code for Appsoft Solution and Appsoft Write, although Lighthouse President Jonathan Schwartz stated flatly that the company has no interest in pursuing the NEXTSTEP word-processor market. Lighthouse could use some of the Write code in future releases of existing products, he said.
Schwartz also declined to commit to plans to publish Solution or any spreadsheet, though he noted that "the market is still wide open for a good traditional spreadsheet."
Athena Design's Mesa spreadsheet is the current market leader in that category.
A separate agreement between Lighthouse and Borland International, owner of the PowerStep code on which Solution is based, gives Lighthouse rights to pursue development and marketing of a two-dimensional spreadsheet using the technology. In contrast to the Appsoft deals, Lighthouse will immediately enter the image-processing market with the acquisition of WetPaint from Pinnacle Research. Schwartz said the company will ship WetPaint in its current form as a prerelease version, then release a product under the Lighthouse name later in the first quarter.
"While image manipulation may not be a huge market, there has been consistent and uniform demand for applications of this type," Schwartz said.
Among the products that compete with WetPaint is another Appsoft application, Image, that was not included in the Lighthouse deal. According to Appsoft's Randy Adams, he is close to concluding a deal with an unnamed company for the rights to Image. Adams said that the Lighthouse and other deals represent the concluding chapter for Appsoft. "A lot of work went into these products. It's important to get them back into the community," Adams said.