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[News] DiscreetFX Acquires Millennium from Nova DesignANN.lu
Posted on 04-Sep-2004 10:58 GMT by Bill Panagouleas29 comments
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Chicago, Illinois & Richmond, VA – August 31st, 2004 -- Visual FX company DiscreetFX LLC Inc., acquired all remaining stock and all rights to the Amiga Video Toaster Flyer software package Millennium held by Nova Design, Inc. "Earlier this year the CEO of DiscreetFX approached us about buying out Millennium and I am now happy to report we have reached an agreement and completed this.", stated Kermit Woodall; Nova Design CEO. DiscreetFX has purchased all remaining copies of this great add-on software toolset for the Amiga Video Toaster Flyer. DiscreetFX CEO Bill Panagouleas stated, "Millennium represents a good fit for the direction my company is going. DiscreetFX has some interesting plans for Millennium that will be made public very soon."

If you are not aware of the many powerful features that Millennium gives your Amiga Toaster/Flyer, DiscreetFX will shortly be making available a video that demonstrates its features for only the cost of shipping. DiscreetFX also welcomes feedback and suggestions from the Millennium community, and we want your feature requests and suggestions on the direction you would like to see this software package go in the future.

For more information about Millennium please access the following web link.

http://www.novadesign.com/exoops/modules/freecontent/index.php?id=12

About DiscreetFX

DiscreetFX has been creating software products for the Amiga, video editing, computer generated graphics (CGI) industry since 1995. The Amiga computer defined and created the video editing, computer graphics market with its birth in 1985. DiscreetFX creates Real-time transitions and effects seen on over 100 television programs including Blind Date, 5th Wheel, Shipmates and more! You can also see DiscreetFX software used on the following networks HBO, Showtime, Discovery Channel, PBS, Fox and many more!

About Nova Design

Nova Design, Inc. is an award-winning software company that has been creating graphics software for over a decade. It's product line includes ImageFX and Aladdin 4D for the Amiga, and Cinematte for Windows/Macintosh. It's products have been used by companies big and small. It's products have been used in major television science fiction series on the SciFi Channel and in syndication, major Hollywood films, and plenty of non-major films! See us on the internet at www.novadesign.com
DiscreetFX Acquires Millennium from Nova Design : Comment 1 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by takemehomegrandma on 04-Sep-2004 09:35 GMT
"DiscreetFX has some interesting plans for Millennium that will be made public very soon."

Interesting! ;-)
DiscreetFX Acquires Millennium from Nova Design : Comment 2 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 04-Sep-2004 16:52 GMT
In reply to Comment 1 (takemehomegrandma):
> DiscreetFX CEO Bill Panagouleas stated, "Millennium represents a good fit for the direction my company is going."

I can't make up my mind if it is funny or sad to see Amiga companies with a workforce in the high single digits making statements like that and talking in the third person ;)
DiscreetFX Acquires Millennium from Nova Design : Comment 3 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Kjetil on 04-Sep-2004 18:35 GMT
In reply to Comment 2 (Anonymous):
I don't se the problem when product is sold by one Amiga company and to an other Amiga company.
DiscreetFX Acquires Millennium from Nova Design : Comment 4 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Full First Full Last on 04-Sep-2004 18:35 GMT
In reply to Comment 2 (Anonymous):
"I can't make up my mind if it is funny or sad to see Amiga companies with a workforce in the high single digits making statements like that and talking in the third person ;)"

That's just the way press releases are worded. It's s.o.p. How many people do you think DiscreetFX is besides Bill?

How many people do you think Nova Design is/was?
DiscreetFX Acquires Millennium from Nova Design : Comment 5 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Kermit Woodall on 04-Sep-2004 19:35 GMT
In reply to Comment 4 (Full First Full Last):
In an online reply Kermit Woodall, CEO of Nova Design, Inc., said, "What kind of person thinks they're being intelligent by commenting on the structure of press releases?"

Kermit Woodall, CBW of Nova Design, Inc. contributed, "How big do you think Amiga companies are in general?"

Finally, in a statement attributed to Kermit Woodall, JOATMON of Nova Design, Inc., it was said, "Do you think this joking reply has gone on long enough?"
DiscreetFX Acquires Millennium from Nova Design : Comment 6 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Sam Smith on 04-Sep-2004 20:35 GMT
In reply to Comment 2 (Anonymous):
Does it matter?

---
Sam
DiscreetFX Acquires Millennium from Nova Design : Comment 7 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 04-Sep-2004 20:44 GMT
"Earlier this day, Kermit Woodall approached us about a comment on ann. I am now happy to report that we have entered a discussion beneficial to both parties", stated anonymous guy, car owner, CEO. "Ann represents a good forum for the direction my comments are going. Anonymous guy has some interesting plans for comments that will be made public very soon."

For more information about us, please access the following web link.
http://www.ann.lu

About Anonymous guy

Anonymous guy Inc. is a comment poster that has been creating discussions for over a decade. It's product line includes comments on MorphOS and AmigaOS4. It's comments have been viewed by companies big and small. See us on the internet at www.ann.lu

About ann

ANN.lu was created and is owned and maintained by Christian Kemp. Visit our other award-winning sites at www.ckemp.com and usa.ckemp.com.
DiscreetFX Acquires Millennium from Nova Design : Comment 8 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Bill Panagouleas on 04-Sep-2004 21:27 GMT
In reply to Comment 7 (Anonymous):
:)
DiscreetFX Acquires Millennium from Nova Design : Comment 9 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 05-Sep-2004 07:26 GMT
In reply to Comment 2 (Anonymous):
<I can't make up my mind if it is funny or sad to see Amiga companies with a workforce in the high single digits making statements like that and talking in the third person ;)>Well, for starters... DiscreetFX doesnt have Amiga as their main income. Like Hyperion, DiscreetFX does some contracted work on the SGI platform.
DiscreetFX Acquires Millennium from Nova Design : Comment 10 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by gary_c on 06-Sep-2004 03:34 GMT
In reply to Comment 2 (Anonymous):
I can't make up my mind if it is funny or sad to see .... ;)

How else would you phrase it and be accurate? The company is an entity (legal or otherwise) separate from the owner/staff, right? So a third-person voice is the most appropriate. Seems rather mean-spirited to snipe at people's work this way, in any case.

-- gary_c
DiscreetFX Acquires Millennium from Nova Design : Comment 11 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Bill Panagouleas on 06-Sep-2004 04:06 GMT
In reply to Comment 2 (Anonymous):
FYI

DiscreetFX is more than just one person. The company has part-time, full-time and contractor staff.

http://discreetfx.com/Contactinfo.htm

Contractors are not listed here though. Amiga/MorphOS development is not all we do. We do contract work for SGI and develop for the Windows version of the Video Toastero. Were also getting a dual 2.5 water cooled G5 Mac soon as well. Amiga and Amiga like systems are our first love but if sales do not improve we will have to focus on developmnet for other systems more and more. We got 0% response on our ad in Total Amiga for the Amiga version of Spontaneous Combustion and that is just sad. We will keep up the advertising though. Amiga OS 4.0 is just starting to come out and Freescale/IBM/Genesi is doing great things with the Pegasus II so we shall se what happens in the next year. Also we are hoping for great sales on our video editing solution for Amiga/MorphOS when it is complete since both systems lack this kind of software.
DiscreetFX Acquires Millennium from Nova Design : Comment 12 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 06-Sep-2004 06:10 GMT
In reply to Comment 11 (Bill Panagouleas):
> We got 0% response on our ad in Total Amiga for the Amiga version of Spontaneous Combustion and that is just sad

I'm afraid that this experience is absolutely normal, has been for years. I've had three-page reviews of my software in prominent Amiga magazine and not a single sale after that for a month or two ;) Amiga users just don't buy software, they are waiting for who-knows-what. I'm holding the OS4 team (specifically Hyperion) responsible for that mood, on multiple grounds: 1. for years making unfounded suggestions that OS4 is just around the corner and thus holding half of the users back from buying software. "Will buy the OS4 version" is something that programmers have had to endure for many years now. 2. Because of the arrogance and hostility towards the competition that-must-not-be-named. The egomanic rather than rational approach of the persons involved has poisoned everything. And let me specifically exclude bbrv here who has extended an olive branch to Hyperion more than once.
DiscreetFX Acquires Millennium from Nova Design : Comment 13 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 06-Sep-2004 06:38 GMT
In reply to Comment 10 (gary_c):
> Seems rather mean-spirited to snipe at people's work this way, in any case

Individuals and (essentially) one person companies making elaborate statements and press releases in the third person just make me smile. Sorry if that offends you. My weird humour. I'm aware that Potemkin attempts at presenting an impressive facade are not unusal at all for Anglo-American companies. But, as far as an international audience is concernewd, I think it would work better to find a more personal, realistic tone, less over-the-top. In other word, "Earlier this year Kermit from Nova approached me about" and not "Earlier this year the chief economic officer of DiscreetFX approached us about...". Ok, 'nuff said, irony that must be explained doesn't work ;)
DiscreetFX Acquires Millennium from Nova Design : Comment 14 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Amon_Re on 06-Sep-2004 08:15 GMT
In reply to Comment 11 (Bill Panagouleas):
Bill, what exactly is 'Spontaneous Combustion'? I'm unfamiliar with that package.
DiscreetFX Acquires Millennium from Nova Design : Comment 15 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Amon_Re on 06-Sep-2004 08:18 GMT
In reply to Comment 12 (Anonymous):
Don't exclude BBRV, because his 'Olive branch' was a poisoned gift.
Had BBRV been serious about aquiring a licence for AOS4 he'd have gotten one, no, instead, he inticed people to try & crack it to get it on the pegasos.

Oh well, where he'll find a cracker capable of rewriting AOS4's HAL for the Marvel chip is a mistery for me...
DiscreetFX Acquires Millennium from Nova Design : Comment 16 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 06-Sep-2004 09:19 GMT
In reply to Comment 15 (Amon_Re):
> Had BBRV been serious about aquiring a licence for AOS4 he'd have gotten one, no

Maybe. You miss the point though: The concept of requiring a "license" (let's be frank, that is a payment demand, whatever the justification de-jour is) so that their software can be bought - sic! - by Pegasos owners is pathetic in itself, and has done great damage. I don't care about petty extortion and ego games as long as they are not played at the expense of everybody else. But in this case, the damage they have done to developers and the community as a whole should weight heavyly on their conscience. I hope the'll reform their ways and behave like decent programmers: charge the customer. Do not milk money out of mainboard makers. Be fair. Be impartial. Support competition. Talk to everybody. Behave like grown ups, generally speaking. If you plan to refer me to the standard paper-thin standard excuses like "no hardware docs" and "porting costs money" and "not enough customers": don't. I don't believe the bullshit. Semi-amateurs port Linux in days without making that kind of fuss.
DiscreetFX Acquires Millennium from Nova Design : Comment 17 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Amon_Re on 06-Sep-2004 09:32 GMT
In reply to Comment 16 (Anonymous):
You don't have to believe excuses, there are certain things that are outside of Hyperion's control, the licencing sheme being one of them.

Don't forget that the sheme was made between 3 parties (Ainc, Eyetech & Hyperion), so holding only one entity responsible for this is petty & childish.

Also, it doesn't make sense for hyperion to in this stage support yet another platform, let them finish it on their prioritised platforms first.

Oh, and hyperion wants to make money, if there's money to be made on the peg, they will consider it.
DiscreetFX Acquires Millennium from Nova Design : Comment 18 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Don Cox on 06-Sep-2004 09:35 GMT
In reply to Comment 11 (Bill Panagouleas):
"Also we are hoping for great sales on our video editing solution for Amiga/MorphOS when it is complete since both systems lack this kind of software."

Video editing software for AOS4 would be a reason to buy a PPC Amiga. Remember that the Toaster never became popular in Europe, and the Draco hardware is aging badly.

If you could produce something as good as Movieshop but working with standard video cards, I think it would sell. Of course the competition now is Final Cut.

If you want "great sales" you will probably have to offer a computer bundled with the software as a package, as well as selling the software separately.
DiscreetFX Acquires Millennium from Nova Design : Comment 19 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 06-Sep-2004 09:37 GMT
In reply to Comment 17 (Amon_Re):
> You don't have to believe excuses, there are certain things that are outside of Hyperion's control, the licencing sheme being one of them.

If that is the case, I'll apologize to Hyperion. But if I may ask: what makes you say that? Hyperion and Eytech appear to be firmly seated in the driver seats. Who else was in a position to tell them what to do? Bill McEwen with 100 US$ in the piggy bank?
DiscreetFX Acquires Millennium from Nova Design : Comment 20 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 06-Sep-2004 10:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 17 (Amon_Re):
> Don't forget that the sheme was made between 3 parties (Ainc, Eyetech & Hyperion)

Scheme is an excellent choice of word, that's exactly what it is. But what is the purpose of the scheme? Is it Eyetech that is fighting with tooth and claws against fair competition? Is it Hyperion that wants a solicit payments from hardware makers? Is it Amiga Inc. that is concerned about MorphOS? Who knows. Instead of a "scheme", there should be a fair and reasonable and open and undiscriminating setup, not a shady cross-finance jungle with "required purchase" items. That means: everybody charges CUSTOMERS for their own product. And pays COMPANIES for anything that is licensed from another party. And is nice and friendly and concerned about interoperability. Easy as 1-2-3. Obviously MorphOS must run on any A1, too.
DiscreetFX Acquires Millennium from Nova Design : Comment 21 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Amon_Re on 06-Sep-2004 11:25 GMT
In reply to Comment 19 (Anonymous):
Wether or not Mcewan has wads of cash or not is irelevant, it's a contract, you just don't break those in the blink of an eye.

Also, the licence is more about the name and certain features of the hardware (the famous dongle), it's about control over the OS, and yes, that also means some form of control over the hardware that it runs on. The finance of this doesn't benefit Hyperion, but Ainc.
DiscreetFX Acquires Millennium from Nova Design : Comment 22 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Amon_Re on 06-Sep-2004 11:29 GMT
In reply to Comment 20 (Anonymous):
You seem to be misunderstanding the finer points of it, the licence benefits Ainc the most actually, as Eyetech pays the licence fee to Ainc.

Hyperion has certain rights as to what they may run on, and they have to follow their contract with Ainc. in the end, the licence is solely beneficiary to Ainc, the forced bundling as you say (AOS4 is only available as OEM) is the only advantage for Hyperion, as that ensures that everyone running AOS actually also pays the fee for it.

There are alot of things that can be said about it, but overal, the licence sheme isn't the most Evil thing in the world, it's about ensuring that every party gets what was promised to them (Ainc get the fees, Eyetech gets AOS4, Hyperion gets their sales)
DiscreetFX Acquires Millennium from Nova Design : Comment 23 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Bill Panagouleas on 06-Sep-2004 12:05 GMT
In reply to Comment 14 (Amon_Re):
Spontaneous Combustion info for Amon_Re.

http://www.discreetfx.com/SpontCombustion.htm
DiscreetFX Acquires Millennium from Nova Design : Comment 24 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Amon_Re on 06-Sep-2004 12:27 GMT
In reply to Comment 23 (Bill Panagouleas):
Thx for the link mate :P
DiscreetFX Acquires Millennium from Nova Design : Comment 25 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 06-Sep-2004 14:13 GMT
In reply to Comment 22 (Amon_Re):
> the licence benefits Ainc the most actually, as Eyetech pays the licence fee to Ainc.

You are talking about a different kind of license now. Somebody wants to use the Amiga trademark to name a computer after it? License it and pay a price. Fair enough. Eyetech does. A company wants source code access to AmigaOS3? Pay for the pleasure. And a distributor of OS4 obviously must pay Hyperion. I have no problem with the concept of selling IP. That is exactly what would be "reasonable". The point where it all goes south is the insane insistance that a mainboard maker has to "license" OS4 to enable Hyperion to sell more copies of OS4 to customers of said mainboard maker. If you think that makes sense, you need frontal lobotomy ;) It's the fucking job of an OS maker to bring the OS to their target audience. Because they get paid for it. By the customers. Don't say Pegasos isn't their target audience. It only isn't because they choose it shouldn't. Egomaniacs clashing. Unfortunetely it's impossible to talk sense into anybody: they rather loose sales and half the market to MorphOS than stepping down from a suspect position. And that is the reason why I think that many Amiga software makers are infuriated, to come back to this thread. It's an unnecessary deadlock at the developer's expense.
DiscreetFX Acquires Millennium from Nova Design : Comment 26 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Seehund on 06-Sep-2004 14:57 GMT
In reply to Comment 25 (Anonymous):
Shoo! Begone, you evil demon of common sense you! We don't want your kind around here.
A company making its own product available for purchase? The absurdity! It's unheard of!

;)

P.S.
The point where it all goes south is the insane insistance that a mainboard maker has to "license" OS4 to enable Hyperion to sell more copies of OS4 to customers of said mainboard maker.

Change "more copies" to "any copies at all", which sadly is the case here.
DiscreetFX Acquires Millennium from Nova Design : Comment 27 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Amon_Re on 06-Sep-2004 16:09 GMT
In reply to Comment 25 (Anonymous):
The point where it all goes south is the insane insistance that a mainboard maker has to "license" OS4 to enable Hyperion to sell more copies of OS4 to customers of said mainboard maker. If you think that makes sense, you need frontal lobotomy ;) It's the fucking job of an OS maker to bring the OS to their target audience. Because they get paid for it. By the customers. Don't say Pegasos isn't their target audience. It only isn't because they choose it shouldn't. Egomaniacs clashing

But that's where you got it wrong mate, Eyetech doesn't licence AOS4 from Hyperion, it's Ainc (with whom Eyetech *DID* get a licence) that tells Hyperion that they should support Eyetech's board, for all we know (i don't have said contracts) Hyperion is *forbidden* to support any other hardware platform *UNLESS* Ainc signs for it.

Hyperion isn't the one benefitting from it, other then the fact that each Eyetech board is sold with a copy of AOS4, the sole beneficiary is Ainc (they have control over the market, the hardware & the OS), thus, logicly, Hyperion isn't the source of the licence, Ainc is.

If you want to discuss this further, i think it's best to contact me directly, instead of spamming this thread even more
DiscreetFX Acquires Millennium from Nova Design : Comment 28 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by mjohnson on 06-Sep-2004 19:25 GMT
In reply to Comment 11 (Bill Panagouleas):
> Also we are hoping for great sales on our video editing solution for
> Amiga/MorphOS when it is complete since both systems lack this kind of
> software.

Before this thread degenerates further into the pissing contest it seems to be inevitably turning into, you wouldn't be able to spill a few more beans on that one? This definitely caught my attention, indeed very interesting, to say the least.

If not, then I'm eagerly looking forward to hearing some more about it, "when it's done." ;-)
DiscreetFX Acquires Millennium from Nova Design : Comment 29 of 29ANN.lu
Posted by Bill Panagouleas on 07-Sep-2004 02:28 GMT
In reply to Comment 24 (Amon_Re):
Nova Design's website has now been updated to refect the sale of Millennium to DiscreetFX.

http://www.novadesign.com/exoops/modules/news/

Also, Millennium has already been added to our product page.

http://discreetfx.com/Products.html
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