Borland and Delphi Officially Dead

Well as an ex Borland employee I think I am better qualified than most to comment on the current situation with the company. I was laid off at Xmas (nice timing Tod!) - however despite what you might think I'm not bitter or angry about it so my views are not tainted in any way - before someone jumps in. I was laid off because the company was not turning over enough money to justify paying me or many others. The only shame of it is that Tod and his cronies on the board all kept their jobs.

In my time with the company I worked in the sales organization (not a sales person though). Needless to say there were problems, but many of them were man made - or more specifically Tod-made! We had one re-focus after another which confused customers and staff alike. The company decided to concentrate on ALM rather than developer products - which in my mind was the right thing to do - since developer products have become commoditized. ALM was seen a huge money spinner. However the strategy was flawed. Primarily no one in the market place knew that Borland sold ALM products! I met numerous vendors at trade shows who told me they never came up against Borland. Borland was rarely included when vendors were invited to tender. When I argued that if I were an IT manager or CIO and I needed to solve a problem that involved software development I would use Google to search for vendors and solutions. I ran various searches on Google for each product group that Borland sells in the ALM space and found Borland on page 14, page 7, page 9 etc. Realistically, unless you know the company sells the products you need no one is going to go beyond page 2, let alone 14! Borland recently laid off most of the marketing structure worldwide. Not a great thing to do if people don't know you!

Buying Segue was a disastrous move for 2 reasons. Firstly, it killed the relationship with Mercury Interactive. By doing so, the large crumbs that used to come from them disappeared over night. Secondly, by buying Segue Borland completed it's ALM portfolio. However, had they not done so, the relationship with Mercury would not have been soured and it's very likely that Mercury (or HP) may have bought Borland to complement it's portfolio. Mercury has now expanded the Requirements section of it's Quality Center product - which indicates they need a Requirements solution which Borland would have filled. It is well known within Borland that Mercury was being courted for such a move.

Tod has, quite frankly, royally f**ked Borland over. He holds All Hands meetings where he tells staff that they shouldn't be worried about the stock price collapsing because the company's vision hasn't been realized yet! I've heard that the stock price has dropped because investors are offsetting gains for tax purposes, because the street hasn't seen the best of the company yet etc etc etc. Many of the said staff bought into the Employee Stock Purchase Plan at prices over $4 or $5. Some who have held for a few years bought at $15! Tod tells them that IF Borland turns a profit there's no reason the stock shouldn't be trading at $10+!!!!!!

When sales are looked at, targets have been reduced for ridiculously low levels and even then people rarely hit more than 40%! It's the only place I know where people forecast an amount below target and when they miss their forecast they are congratulated for coming close! The company sent people to Presidents Club who missed their quotas! Unreal!

The company's value drops daily and yet no one buys them out because they hold $200m debt, which has to be repaid immediately upon takeover. The company is only worth $91m - Segue was purchased for $100m! The whole CodeGear sell off is a debacle also. At the back end of last year the business attracted a low number of interested parties but there was no sale. I have it on very good authority that the sale fell through because certain individuals were unethical in their behavior and supplied incorrect information to one or more prospective purchasers. I'm amazed that Embarcadero bought it in the end but they did pay next to nothing for it!

So, I concur, Borland at least is Dead!