NewsGator buys FeedDemon…. Crap

I read last night on Scoble’s blog that one aggregator company was going to buy another one. I knew it was NewsGator buying someone (because they have some VC cash to burn) I just hoped it wouldn’t be my FeedDemon… wrong.

First I want to congratulate Nick, I feel like I know the guy through reading his blog and using his products for the last couple of years. I wish him the best in his new position, but I sure hope he got cash and not stock.

Here is why I am not happy with this:

1) Newsgator can’t keep it’s own customer’s happy. Here Chris Pirillo (one of their biggest fans) tells them to get their shit together.

2) Newsgator has received over 10 million dollars in VC funding. When venture capitalists put money into your company they are not looking to get it paid back, they want one of two things: Your company to go public or to sell your company. Since I dont see Newsgator going public anytime soon, my bet is that they will be bought up by another company and we will see TopStyle and Feeddemon go the way of Homesite.

3) Newsgator is “betting the farm” on online/enterprise RSS and neglecting their current customers (see #1). There will be tons of competition in this area, Bloglines is already the leader in the online area and I expect all the major portals will be jumping on this (Yahoo and MSN already have). You think Dare is sitting over at MSN and not writing an online aggregator? ha.

4) Microsoft will build RSS into their next version of Outlook, and most likely will add some level of support to Internet Explorer.

5) Greg and Nick aren’t the ones making the decisions. Sure, they might be the more public face for the company in the blogosphere, but Newsgator already has tons of executives and higher ups that will be calling the shots. If it comes down to Nick doing the right thing for his customers, which I think he would always do, and something that helps the bottom line…. I dont think Nick will get to make the decision.

I have been using FeedDemon since the first beta, I love it. I have talked other people into buying it, I have evangalized it on my blog and in person…. but I think our time together is coming to an end. As of today I am searching for a replacement. I have heard alot of good things about RSSBandit so I am going to download that today and give it a shot.

As for TopStyle, I am glad that Visual Studio 2005 is doing alot more in that area because I would be willing to bet that the version Nick is working on now will be the last.

-James