Return of the King
After quitting
Microsoft 20 years ago, Paul Allen is selling his first broad consumer
software since he left the outfit.
Apparently he has set up an outfit which
peddles a program that lets users keep better track of e-mails in
Microsoft's Outlook. Xiant was born because Allen was frustrated at having to
sort e-mails and it will release the software and perhaps other programs
originally built for Allen.
Allen, 56, has had a mixed record as an
investor in media and technology companies since he left Microsoft in
1983. Ironically he has been sitting on lots of things that he got his
engineers to develop for him. One thing he might have kicked himself
over was that his engineers developed touch screens that let Allen view
his music and videos from various rooms in his house, his yacht and on a
computer while travelling.
Slingbox is similar to another thing that
Allen had sitting around. Xiant's Filer program will suggest the best choices
for folders to place an e-mail message when the user right-clicks on the
message. Allen likes filing things. He is the son of a librarian which
might explain it.