Author Topic: [Arca Noae] Arca Noae and Serenity Systems International  (Read 36235 times)

Martin Iturbide

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[Arca Noae] Arca Noae and Serenity Systems International
« on: February 23, 2015, 11:35:55 pm »
About News:
http://www.os2world.com/past-news/79-general/20797-arca-noae-arca-noae-and-serenity-systems-international

Hi

I don't know exactly what does it mean but maybe it can be good news.

Serenity Systems International is the company that made the OEM agreement with IBM to resell OS/2 as OEM. But Mensys used to get all "Serenity Systems International" assets (or maybe not) some time ago, but since it was not a public agreement (SSI and Mensys) I can not say if it was sold, or just have permission to redistribute/built eCS, or anything at all.

So I will start with a basic: What does this means?
- Does it means Arca Noae can distribute/sell/build eComStation now?
- Did Serenity Systems company was sold his company twice ? - I wish I can do that :)   ...or it was not sold at the first place.
- So now Arca Noae has an agreement signed with Mensys/XEU? SSI has an agreement with Mensys, and SSI was bought by Arca Noae.
- Or is it eComStation out of the equation, since maybe only eCS was sold from SSI to Mensys?
- Or this does not apply to IBM's OEM agreement? or it applies?
- Or maybe Arca Noae just bought SVISTA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SVISTA) and can return from the dead? :P

I'm really confused with this things, and I have too many questions. But I hope this turns to be a good thing.
Martin Iturbide
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Andreas Schnellbacher

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Re: [Arca Noae] Arca Noae and Serenity Systems International
« Reply #1 on: February 24, 2015, 12:01:04 am »
Mensys had told that they took over the right from Serenity (or was it from IBM?) to sell OS/2. I always thought that Serenity was dead since then, but both companies made a mystery out of it.

My opinion about such an announcement about "the remaining assets" is that this contains too few info to be of any value for us users. This kind usually starts speculation.

Olafur Gunnlaugsson

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Re: [Arca Noae] Arca Noae and Serenity Systems International
« Reply #2 on: February 24, 2015, 04:43:38 am »
- Did Serenity Systems company was sold his company twice ? - I wish I can do that :)   ...or it was not sold at the first place.
Mensys never bought serenity and never claimed to, the company has always been owned by Bob and listed as such, that is a matter of public record and can be looked up on the net

Sigurd Fastenrath

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Re: [Arca Noae] Arca Noae and Serenity Systems International
« Reply #3 on: February 24, 2015, 10:35:23 am »
Just speaking about the term "Asset":

There are (more) than two ways to take over a company.

But the two most important are named:

"Share Deal" - the new owner buys the whole "old" company, including assets and liabilities

"Asset Deal" - the new owner does "only" buy the assets of the "old" company, not the liabilies. The old company does exist still but is usually liquidated after a short period of time by the still (former) owner.

So I would guess that Arca Noae "just" bought the Assets of Serentiy, and as I guess as well that the most important assets are "Licences or Owner Rights".

This might lead to the conclusion that they also bought the "License contract with/from IBM" as this seems to me to be the only valuable Asset.

This might lead to the conclusion that they also bought the "Contract with Mensys" that Serenity had - in case there was some.

This might lead to the conclusion that they also bought the "brand" EcomStation.

This might lead to the question:

Will Arca Noae publish there own version of ecomstation (or whatever they will call it) or still let Mensys do it  - or does Mensys is the owner of the brand?

At least I would say it is very very good that things are getting concentrated in hands that proofed to be able to do the "right things"  :)
« Last Edit: February 24, 2015, 10:37:41 am by Sigurd Fastenrath »

Olafur Gunnlaugsson

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Re: [Arca Noae] Arca Noae and Serenity Systems International
« Reply #4 on: February 24, 2015, 02:23:28 pm »
Just speaking about the term "Asset":

There are (more) than two ways to take over a company.

But the two most important are named:

"Share Deal" - the new owner buys the whole "old" company, including assets and liabilities

"Asset Deal" - the new owner does "only" buy the assets of the "old" company, not the liabilies. The old company does exist still but is usually liquidated after a short period of time by the still (former) owner.

So I would guess that Arca Noae "just" bought the Assets of Serentiy, and as I guess as well that the most important assets are "Licences or Owner Rights".
http://www.serenity-systems.com/
Says "a Arca Noae company", that would mean bought the company, and since Serenity was an LLC not an incorporated company, there were no shares, meaning that buying the company is simpler than buying the assets, not the other way around, there is no need to liquidate an LLC, just de-register it.

Sigurd Fastenrath

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Re: [Arca Noae] Arca Noae and Serenity Systems International
« Reply #5 on: February 24, 2015, 03:12:26 pm »
http://www.serenity-systems.com/
Says "a Arca Noae company", that would mean bought the company, and since Serenity was an LLC not an incorporated company, there were no shares, meaning that buying the company is simpler than buying the assets, not the other way around, there is no need to liquidate an LLC, just de-register it.

In Germany, regardless if it is a partnership, incorporation or other form of company/society/assosiation/corporation, for all those the "parts" that owners own are named "shares".

Usually tax advisers advice people to make an asset deal (what is possible for all kind of corporations and so on) instead of buying "everything" because the new owner can select the things he really needs and avoid the liabilities or i.e. guaranty issues or employee contracts etc. etc. of the former owner.

BigGoofyGuy

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Re: [Arca Noae] Arca Noae and Serenity Systems International
« Reply #6 on: February 24, 2015, 04:39:40 pm »
I think it is good news. IMO, there is hope for OS/2 - eCS.
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Lewis Rosenthal

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Re: [Arca Noae] Arca Noae and Serenity Systems International
« Reply #7 on: February 24, 2015, 05:29:07 pm »
So much speculation...

Where to begin?

Quote
- Does it means Arca Noae can distribute/sell/build eComStation now?

No.

Quote
- Did Serenity Systems company was sold his company twice ? - I wish I can do that :)   ...or it was not sold at the first place.

Serenity Systems International was never "sold." The development & marketing of eCS was handed off to/taken over by Mensys in 2007/2008 (I'm not exactly clear on the date, but surely a quick read of this article should refresh everyone's recollections).

Quote
- So now Arca Noae has an agreement signed with Mensys/XEU? SSI has an agreement with Mensys, and SSI was bought by Arca Noae.

This has nothing to do with Mensys, XEU, or any other entity.

Quote
- Or is it eComStation out of the equation, since maybe only eCS was sold from SSI to Mensys?

This has nothing to do with eComStation (the product or brand name) directly. It does have to do with name recognition. People associate Serenity Systems with the refocus on OS/2 client development. That refocusing launched eComStation. Thus, people associate - to this day - Serenity Systems with eComStation, even though Serenity really had little or nothing to do with eComStation after 2007/2008.

Quote
- Or this does not apply to IBM's OEM agreement? or it applies?

Whatever arrangement Serenity had with IBM was long over by the time Arca Noae entered the space. Arca Noae did not inherit, acquire, or otherwise happen upon an agreement with IBM as a result of this transaction.

Quote
- Or maybe Arca Noae just bought SVISTA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SVISTA) and can return from the dead? :P

As we know, SVISTA was - and continues to be - a sore spot for many of us involved in things at the time. The Wikipedia article seems as complete a review as any (with references), to my recollection. Like eComStation and Serenity's license agreement with IBM, this product was long gone before Arca Noae was a figment in anyone's imagination.

Arca Noae's press release was entirely accurate: Whatever remained of the essence of Serenity Systems International is now part of Arca Noae. We did not acquire whatever original (or remaining) business entity there may have been. We look forward to being associated with the name of a company which is still so fondly remembered in our community.

Arca Noae continues to provide value to existing users of the platform. To that end, we are pursuing a number of other relationships with other people and companies, some well known and others less so. For reasons which should be obvious to even the casual observer, we cannot disclose all of our business details to outside parties, but we are happy to share good news when it comes our way. We view bringing serenity-systems.com under our wing as very good news. Please read the Serenity Systems About page.
Lewis
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Lewis G Rosenthal, CNA, CLP, CLE, CWTS
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Arca Noae, LLC                               www.arcanoae.com

Martin Iturbide

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Re: [Arca Noae] Arca Noae and Serenity Systems International
« Reply #8 on: February 24, 2015, 11:14:55 pm »
Sorry Lewis, in that case I don't understand why did Arca acquired SSI.

If there is some other business strategy that you can not discuss in public, I will understand it.

Buying SSI only for its branding does not seems interesting to me (only if it was sold very cheap), but if its part of Arca strategy I can not disagree with that. But I think it is quite contradictory that if people associate Serenity Systems with the refocus on OS/2 client development, but buying SSI does not mean that Arca can not produce a new OS/2 client. 

I really hope there is a more deep reason or advantage why Arca bought Serenity that you can not comment because is part of a commercial strategy, instead that only for its branding.

Please remember that the main dissatisfaction on the current days is that the community does not have an idea what is going on with eComStation. There had not been a single formal word since Dec 2013 about XEU/Mensys merge, all the "rock star driver developers" are now in Arca, and Menso has new job posted at LinkedIn. 

I was told at Warpstock that a "Arca-Mensys/XEU" agreement was close (by Menso), but the reality seems that there are no results.

Regards
Martin Iturbide
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Lewis Rosenthal

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Re: [Arca Noae] Arca Noae and Serenity Systems International
« Reply #9 on: February 25, 2015, 01:51:35 am »
But I think it is quite contradictory that if people associate Serenity Systems with the refocus on OS/2 client development, but buying SSI does not mean that Arca can not produce a new OS/2 client. 
It's not contradictory. We provide value for people running OS/2. I'm not arguing that there is no value in a fresh shrink-wrapped product (new version), but OS/2 is a mature, stable platform. Have any of us seen real value in the accelerated release cycle of Firefox, for example (on any platform), just because the version numbers keep incrementing?

We believe that it is entirely possible to provide current functionality (read: latest code) without necessarily burning a new disc. This isn't at odds with SSI's philosophy. It goes along with it.

Quote
I really hope there is a more deep reason or advantage why Arca bought Serenity that you can not comment because is part of a commercial strategy, instead that only for its branding.
Branding is a good thing, and useful to Arca Noae over the long term.

Quote
Please remember that the main dissatisfaction on the current days is that the community does not have an idea what is going on with eComStation. There had not been a single formal word since Dec 2013 about XEU/Mensys merge, all the "rock star driver developers" are now in Arca, and Menso has new job posted at LinkedIn. 
As I've said before, several times over, eComStation is not our product. As such, it is not for us to comment on what the publisher of that operating system does. Arca Noae is dedicated to providing driver enhancements and applications which bring a better user experience to the platform (OS/2 and OS/2-based derivatives). This is true whether a customer comes to us running IBM OS/2 Warp 4 or eComStation 2.2b2.

Quote
I was told at Warpstock that a "Arca-Mensys/XEU" agreement was close (by Menso), but the reality seems that there are no results.
Nobody from Arca Noae ever said that. I know that I didn't say that. We are still discussing options with XEU, that is true. Were we "close" at the time of Warpstock? Are we "close" now? I can't say for certain.

IMO, there is way too much emphasis being placed on a new packaged product. Attention should be paid to what might go into that product, and Arca Noae is essentially providing that content right now, in the form of updated drivers giving us the ability to run the operating system on modern hardware. Yes, installing fresh on a new machine is still a tedious process without a one-disc solution. We understand that. However, if you want a new version of eCS, you'll have to ask the people who publish it.  ;)
Lewis
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Arca Noae, LLC                               www.arcanoae.com

Fahrvenugen

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Re: [Arca Noae] Arca Noae and Serenity Systems International
« Reply #10 on: February 25, 2015, 02:57:07 am »
Lewis,

I seem to recall that one of Serenity System's early products was a product that could easily push configurations and applications from a central server out to multiple workstations.  Unfortunately i can't recall the name of that product, but I do seem to recall it worked fairly well.  Any idea what happened to that software (and did you happen to get the rights to it as a part of this announcement)? 

Just curious.


Martin Iturbide

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Re: [Arca Noae] Arca Noae and Serenity Systems International
« Reply #11 on: February 25, 2015, 03:33:29 am »
Hi Fahrvenugen

Was it Serenity Systems Wise Manager?

It will be interesting of some software assets of Serenity can be set as "AS IS" freeware and/or open source, at least as a learning value from the source code of it, if there is not interest on continue the development of it.

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Martin Iturbide
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Martin Iturbide

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Re: [Arca Noae] Arca Noae and Serenity Systems International
« Reply #12 on: February 25, 2015, 04:22:37 am »
.... if you want a new version of eCS, you'll have to ask the people who publish it.  ;)

Let's see if I can get an answer.
Martin Iturbide
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Martin Iturbide

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Re: [Arca Noae] Arca Noae and Serenity Systems International
« Reply #13 on: February 25, 2015, 04:24:03 am »
Hi Lewis.

I see some value in some old Serenity Systems article that are not longer available on the site.

Can I have your permission to republish the contents of this page on the OS2World Wiki under the Creative Commons Share Alike license?
https://web.archive.org/web/20041013102711/http://www.serenity-systems.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/CategoryDisplay?cgrfnbr=11552&cgmenbr=9803

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Martin Iturbide
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Joseph M. Kempf

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Re: [Arca Noae] Arca Noae and Serenity Systems International
« Reply #14 on: February 25, 2015, 04:31:13 am »
Lewis,

I seem to recall that one of Serenity System's early products was a product that could easily push configurations and applications from a central server out to multiple workstations.  Unfortunately i can't recall the name of that product, but I do seem to recall it worked fairly well.  Any idea what happened to that software (and did you happen to get the rights to it as a part of this announcement)? 

Just curious.

I recall that too.  My memory is faulty here, but I seem to recall that Bob St. John and Kim Cheung were working with a concept of rippling a slimmed down workstation or smart terminal off of a mainframe or a server.  I doubt I understood the concept though.  Might Serenity Managed Client be the application you have in mind?