MARCH 8 2006

Microsoft Finally Gets Allaire

Related Categories: IT General,

Today Microsoft acquired Onfolio Inc. -- makers of content sharing software. This means that Microsoft finally get's their hands on an Allaire -- J.J. Allaire. JJ, his brother Jeremy, Adam Berrey (et al) founded Allaire Corporation -- makers of ColdFusion, HomeSite, etc. -- circa 1995. JJ founded Onfolio in 2002 shortly after the Macromedia acquisition of Allaire. Jeremy stayed at Macromedia briefly then, in 2004, he founded BrightCove -- leading the wave of Internet Television. You can read more about the Onfolio acquisition here:

Here's what's interesting. Back in 1995 Microsoft approached Allaire trying to acquire ColdFusion 1.0. That's right! -- this is the precursor to all the rumors of Microsoft buying out Allaire, then Microsoft buying out Macromedia, etc. Back then Microsoft didn't have an in house technology for dynamic, data-driven web pages. When the Allaire bros. turned them down they acquired dbWeb from Hawaii-based Aspect Software -- which became Microsoft's ASP. So there you have it -- ColdFusion came first, and ASP was Microsoft's answer. You can read more about it here:

So it seems after 11-years Microsoft has finally gotten their hands on Allaire!