December 17, 2010
Subject: VA Smalltalk 2010 Update
Dear VA Smalltalk User,
As we near the end of the year it seems like a good time to give you a brief update on Instantiations and VA Smalltalk. Many of you know that Instantiations’ Java business and people were acquired by Google in August. Our Smalltalk business remains independent and our great people and products are moving forward with a stronger focus than ever on the success of Smalltalk…and a nice infusion of cash from the Google deal.
It isn’t even over yet, but it's going to be another year of growth for VA Smalltalk! In fact, I think it's important to note that after our customer base received the Google Java acquisition news, our Smalltalk sales levels rolled on with nary a blink. We thank you, our customers, for your continued support.
In the conference calls we held after the Google announcement we committed to expand our investment in development. First, we have created a new and expanded VA Smalltalk Roadmap that I’m sure will be of great interest to you (http://www.instantiations.com/products/roadmap.html). We remain very eager to hear from you about new features and functions that would be of interest.
Second, and of special importance, we mentioned that we were recruiting and planning to expand our staff. To that end we are very pleased to announce that well-known Smalltalker Donald MacQueen will join the VA Smalltalk engineering team as a Principal Member of Technical Staff on January 1, 2011. Donald has been developing software for over thirty years, the last thirteen of which have been working on JWARS, a major VA Smalltalk System (over 1.1 million lines of code!). He also brings extensive commercial software development experience from industries including banking, financial services, retail, and real estate. In his new role at Instantiations Donald will be involved in all areas of product architecture and development. We will continue to recruit and add staff as we enter 2011.
Last, but definitely not least, we will ship our next release of VA Smalltalk (v8.0.3) in January. We wanted to get it out before the end of 2010, but unless we get the powers that be to add a few days to the year that won’t happen. The schedule is perhaps the only casualty of the Google deal…but happily those complexities are behind us for the most part at this point.
Thanks again for your continued support and Happy Holidays from all of us here at Instantiations!
Mike Taylor
President & CEO
1-855-4-SMALLTALK
(1-855-476-2558)
www.instantiations.com
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