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Microsoft Buys Wunderlist
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Posted by Hugh
Jun 6, 2015 at 11:23 AM
Alexander Deliyannis wrote:
Donovan wrote:
>>On the subject of buying to kill it. The example that bugs me to this
>>day is the Facebook purchase of drop.io (anybody remember that great
>>file drop, storage, note-taking, notes-by-phone service?).
>
>Yes we do; and the way it was discontinued:
>http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/2111
>
>
>>Facebook
>>couldn’t hire Zuckerberg buddy Sam Lessin for some weird reason, so
>>Zuckerberg bought the company (drop.io), brought Sam aboard as a
>>Facebook VP, and shut-down the service. He only wanted Sam. Lessin
>>stayed about four years and left - with a bundle of money from the
>>drop.io sale. I miss it to this day.
>
>I didn’t know this background. Makes the disregard to users even more
>prominent.
It’s a not uncommon cycle in the “creative” industries - a big company wants to hire one or more “creative” individual(s) working in a recently-founded small firm, the deal can’t be done (usually because the “creative” individuals refuse), the big company then buys the entire small firm, places the “creative” individual(s) on earn-out(s), the usefulness (to the big company) of the original team dwindles over time so it shrinks, the earn-out(s) end(s), and the “creative” individual(s) depart, wiser but richer. (And, if they’re lucky and their non-competes are not too restrictive, are able to repeat the whole process with a new start-up, a new purchaser and a new deal. Perhaps more than once.)
Posted by yosemite
Apr 21, 2017 at 08:38 PM
Told you so! Add Wunderlist to the list of bought and killed.
=========
From their blog:
“Today marks an evolution of Wunderlist. We’re excited to announce the Microsoft To-Do Preview, ...”
“Wunderlist and Wunderlist Pro will eventually be retired, but not before we incorporate your valued feedback and the best elements of the Wunderlist experience into To-Do.”
https://www.wunderlist.com/blog/your-preview-of-microsoft-to-do/
yosemite wrote:
> Buy it, kill it. Well, sometimes they don’t kill it straight off but it
> dies a lingering death. Hackpad comes to mind. I’m sure there’s a
> zillion others but I don’t remember them… Because buy it kill it
> works!
Posted by $Bill
Apr 21, 2017 at 09:20 PM
I migrated from Wunderlist to To-Do today—- I’d say renamed is a better description than killed.
Posted by Luhmann
Apr 22, 2017 at 01:21 AM
Hackpad is now Paper. The latest update to Paper added an offline mode. I like Paper’s presentation mode and often use it for teaching as a quick alternative to PowerPoint. (You can paste markdown formatted text from Bear right into Paper.)
paper.dropbox.com
yosemite wrote:
> Hackpad comes to mind.
Posted by MadaboutDana
Apr 22, 2017 at 10:08 PM
Dunno so much - Microsoft To Do appears to be a severely emasculated version of Wunderlist. The closest thing to Wunderlist now in existence is WeDo, which is so similar as to be a WunderClone. Although it runs on a lot of platforms, it doesn’t run on all of the ones Wunderlist does/did. More info for those interested at wedo.com
I’m being a bit mean. WeDo is actually pretty good.