One way is that the parent corporation is keeping it alive for whatever reason by pouring cash into it. They might be doing this so that at some point some other corporation (Sibelius, perhaps, or PGMusic, or Opcode or Apple Computers, who knows) would want to buy it since the programs that MakeMusic sells are good concepts and proven technology.
The parent corporation may be doing that also as a tax write-off -- they end up with a solid, marketable product yet they are able to lower their tax liability each year.
Other ways that corporations lose money is through equipment and real-estate depreciation (can you imagine anything more ludicrous than real-estate depreciation being allowed on tax returns? Real-estate and buildings rarely depreciate in real-world terms!) so it is a paper money-loss and not a real pouring-cash-down-the-toilet sort of loss.
But we are all aware of this and that is a major part of the hue and cry against the current copy protection scheme -- a very precariously positioned corporation is putting out its most recent release with a copy-protection scheme which relies on its continued financial well-being and existence for future re-installs on replacement computers. The parent corporation could decide TOMORROW to pull the plug on MakeMusic, and it could be years before the assets (i.e. the code, the stock and the copyrights and patents) change hands to a corporation that wants to continue to support it. Just think of poor Encore users -- STILL no new version despite G-Vox having purchased the assets several years ago. That may well be the fate of Finale users!
So my advice is not to lose your version 2003 CDs, since if Finale DOES get the axe and we suffer a hard-drive crash or motherboard failure requiring a new (and unexpected and therefore unprepared-for) installation, there will be no immediate remedy for a reinstallation. They are only PROMISING (only when I have the update in my grubby little hands will I believe them) to release an interim version which will allow us to uninstall it from one computer and reinstall it on another computer without requiring us to contact MakeMusic again. It's almost as if they EXPECT they won't be here much longer!
I do hope that the programmers have some sort of trick up their sleeves so that if MakeMusic does go belly up, they will be willing to anonymously release some sort of utility that would assist us poor orphans in future reinstallations of Fin2004.
But on the other hand, they've been losing money right along, so perhaps the future will be simply more of the same!
Matthew Hindson Fastmail Acct wrote:
I don't really understand this stuff, but to me it doesn't look too good. Would someone with more financial experience like to elaborate what is going on here? How can they lose money every quarter and still stay afloat?
http://www.makemusic.com/press_releases.asp?id=18
http://www.makemusic.com/pr_financials_q22003.pdf
Matthew
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-- David H. Bailey [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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