Extensis Buys DiamondSoft -- Just a few days after Apple revealed that Mac OS X 10.3 Panther would feature a font-management utility called Font Book, Extensis (makers of Suitcase) announced that it was buying DiamondSoft (makers of Font Reserve). Coincidence? Yes, actually, since corporate acquisitions take more than a few days to arrange. Nicole Andergard of Extensis confirmed that the acquisition had been in the works for some time, and the announcement of Font Book had come as a surprise to both companies. She also said the point behind the acquisition was eventually to combine Suitcase's strengths on the client side with Font Reserve's server-side capabilities to create the most powerful font-management solution for publishing professionals. Also, although Apple hasn't provided many details about Font Book, Nicole said they had been led to believe that it was more of an entry-level font-management program that would be unlikely to cannibalize professional users from Suitcase. [ACE]

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<http://db.tidbits.com/article/06797>