John Pacchetti, an early innovator in the RSS space, has finally succeeded in selling his company RSSCalendar. Pacchetti put the company up for sale on for $50k on eBay this summer and didn’t get any bids. This morning it was announced that the company has been acquired by Dallas, Texas based Lookout Software. Lookout Software provides a means for Outlook content to be shared without the purchase of Microsoft’s Exchange.
At this point in the game, the most interesting thing about RSSCalendar may be Pacchetti’s provisional patent application, which presumably covers the delivery of calendar items to a calendar by RSS. LookOut said this morning that Pacchetti would not be joining the company.
By now the product’s functionality seems common enough that the IP could pay off well as a gamble. When asked about the status of the provisional patent, which will expire one year from filing date, the company said no one was available to comment about it yet this morning. If a return phone call does come in, I don’t expect it to be very forthcoming.
Lookout Software was also the name of another company that was founded by Netscape CTO and Zimbra backer Eric Hahn and which was acquired by Microsoft in 2004. Thus this does not appear to be a story of an undercover Microsoft acquisition to launch an IP attack on Google and Yahoo calendaring products.
It could instead be a legitimate small purchase of one man’s software by a larger, related company seeking to add functionality. In that case, lookout Lookout customers – here comes sharing by RSS!
