
Progress Software to Acquire Telerik for $263M - johandt
http://online.wsj.com/articles/progress-software-to-acquire-telerik-for-263-million-1413983315
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ninv
Telerik makes awful .Net components. I have used them in past. I was
frustrated with their breaking changes, they had the worst release management.
Every year they used to release new version and used to outright removed the
methods or replace the signatures. No Deprecation!

~~~
andwaal
I have to strongly disagree. I have used their Sliverlight components in every
SL project I have been involved with for the last four years and I could`t
live without them. They are professional components for enterprise which does
something that a open-source project could seldom( maybe never) do, support
all the odd-cases needed. These are all the weird cases that no one would
bother to implement in an OS-project, since it`s very seldom needed, but since
they know that their customers might need this functionally they have already
implemented it. Just look at the feature list for their GridView component for
SL and try to match that with an OS-project. Combining this with good support
and you got a winner.

As a result the good experiences I had with their components in a SL context I
am know adopting their KendoUI components together with ReactJs. So far all
the points made above for SL still stands for KendoUI.

~~~
ninv
Try Infragistics, you will never look back.

~~~
rational-future
Both Telerik and Infragistics have their main development offices in Sofia,
Bulgaria. From what I've heard most of Infragististics
developers/testers/managers have worked for Telerik in the past and there is a
considerable current in the other direction as well. I wouldn't expect a
massive difference in the quality.

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flexie
That is one of the most successful Bulgarian companies being acquired. Telerik
has been a center piece in the Bulgarian IT sector. There is hardly an IT
company here in Sofia that doesn't have at least one employee that has been
employed with Telerik or gone through their training programmes.

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venomsnake
The rumors in Sofia were that the company was going downhill. This seems to
confirm it.

I really tried to like their products. Didn't managed. And they flooded the
market with half trained "developers" from their academy.

~~~
gchokov
And how exactly is 263M for 10 years "going downhill"?

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x1024
Every large number sounds impressive, don't get yourself caught in that mind-
trap. Divide the number by their employees, check earnings/winnings, subtract
investments, compare to other companies and draw your conclusions again.

If I make $1000000/year, that's great. But if it takes me 1000 people to do
it, that's less than $100 per person per month.

~~~
rational-future
It was bootstrapped, from what I know the original 4 founders used to own 80%
of the company a year or so ago.

~~~
x1024
What you know is false, sorry.

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uptown
For non-subscribers:
[https://www.google.com/search?q=Progress+Software+to+Acquire...](https://www.google.com/search?q=Progress+Software+to+Acquire+Telerik+for+%24263+Million)

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modarts
It's amazing the kind of crap you can produce in the enterprise space and get
away with it to the tune of multi hundred million dollar acquisitions.

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Avalaxy
Hmmmm, apparently I'm the only one here with a positive experience. I've used
their Windows Phone and Windows 8 components and I really really like them.
They are much, much faster than their opensource counterparts, they are very
flexible and advanced and Telerik's support is great. I always get answers
within 24 hours, and they often provide a complete solution/project with
samples.

~~~
gchokov
You are not the only one. People tend to share the negative stuff first
though. No company like Telerik can reach this state without a value given to
their customers.

~~~
rational-future
HN has become very negative in the recent years. Only stuff build by Apple and
Google gets mostly positive comments.

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sireat
I did not realize that Telerik was of Bulgarian origin. That is a pretty
sizable exit.

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fit2rule
This is a fascinating move for Progress Software, who seem to have managed
decades of survival through the onslaught of SQL and MySQL/Postgres cutting
into their market .. and so to see them acquiring Telerik now is really
interesting. Progress were, once, one of the major players in the database
space (and still are in many vertical markets) so it could really be an
interesting development to see them rise again. Could be with this acquisition
they are gearing up for a new era in database development...

~~~
the_ancient
They survive because of vendor lockin, too many companies have years or
decades of work in to using that system and it would be far too costly to
move.

If your starting a project from scratch today you are not using progress,
Legacy is their only business.

They know it, which is why they are buying up companies like this.

~~~
kamikazi
Bingo! I came across Progress first time this week in a different context
(Indian startup scene) - they portray themselves as incubators here
([https://www.progress.com/incubator](https://www.progress.com/incubator)).
Have a fancy application system et al.. even stress how they don't take any
equity.

Turns out in lieu of essentially a deskspace and maybe wifi they mandate the
incubated startups to use their Cloud platform products - aha lockin! This is
how shitty enterprises survive. When they can't find new customers, they come
to India and tomtom around as evangelists & incubators and other $100 words in
self-description.

~~~
fit2rule
Well, to be fair, Progress has had traction in India as an application
environment for decades now, so it only makes sense that there be an
iCloud'ification of their whole product line - all the cool kids are doing
it..

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hipsterrific
Telerik wasn't half bad when I was the only .net developer for a hospital
system with 3,000 employees. It made short work for me since building AJAX-y
controls meant less time building business rules.

The controls are really bad, they produce a lot of awful JS. Also, with newer
frameworks such as angular, knockout, ember, et al...building reusable JS
components got simpler. I haven't yet used KendoUI but haven't had a need too,
building my own was far more fun (and with OData, not that much time either).

I did use their reporting product a lot but even that was too heavy and
cumbersome.

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patja
I just hope Carl and Richard at the .NET Rocks podcast can find a new sponsor
or figure out some other option to keep their great show going. Seems like
Telerik has been their main sponsor forever.

~~~
traskjd
Richard is (was?) on the board of Telerik also. I've contacted DNR to try and
organise sponsorship and never heard back from them.

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imroot
Progresses' database is an interesting and very powerful product, but, I'm not
sure that this will be beneficial to anyone who isn't really familiar with the
verticals and integrations that Progress owns. I know that I've seen progress
used by running MFP/ERP suites that are used by automotive and manufacturing
companies.

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mwg66
Good for them. The Telerik .NET controls are an overall a positive experience.

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shadowzero313
Just got their email to the devs:

Today, we’re excited to announce that Telerik has entered into an agreement to
be acquired by Progress Software (progress.com
<[http://info.telerik.com/UoQy00P0TG0TOJ003C000AR>](http://info.telerik.com/UoQy00P0TG0TOJ003C000AR>)),
a U.S.-based public company that specializes in the development, deployment,
integration and management of a deep suite of business applications. They’ve
been in business since 1981 and their technology is used by nearly 140,000
organizations in more than 180 countries, including 90% of the Fortune 500.

By becoming part of Progress, Telerik will have the support and resources to
continue delivering on its grand ambitions to change the way people develop
applications for the modern world. Telerik will preserve its identity and its
brand name.

As we chase our ambition with more energy than ever before, we promise to stay
true to the values that have guided us since our humble beginnings, including
taking care of our customers and employees; evolving together with you as the
world changes; going the extra mile; reinventing ourselves; innovating;
creating great products; and continuing to “deliver more than expected” every
day in our quest to create a better digital world.

We’re committed to keeping our promises as we will be joining a company that
shares a similar philosophy, bold vision and is driven to reinvent itself.
Telerik and Progress have very complementary product portfolios, business
models and expertise. This will make both of us stronger and more capable to
deliver on our shared vision: to help individual developers and enterprises
build modern applications across platforms and devices.

Please know that your relationship with Telerik is not changing as a result of
this transaction. You should continue contacting us in the same ways you
always have. Connect with the same Telerik staff members you’re used to. Read
our thought leadership content on TDN. Submit your issues and product features
requests.

Telerik remains fully committed to continuing to empower every one of you with
our industry-leading UI tools, platform, and cloud services. We will continue
to innovate and improve all of our products. Our 1.4 million developers and
130,000 companies depend on Telerik day in and day out to get their jobs done
as effectively as possible and we treat your investment and trust very
seriously. You can expect the same level of relentless focus and passion we
have always delivered. We are here to stay and will continue to be your
trusted partner and enable you to develop the greatest experiences possible
for your customers.

Last, but not least – a VERY BIG THANK YOU! Without the trust of every one of
you, our customers, Telerik would have never become what it is today. We are
very excited about being able to serve you well in the future.

Telerik founders and senior leadership will continue to drive the Telerik
vision and strategy as part of Progress Software and we’d love to hear from
you! You can reach us at: Telerikprogress@telerik.com.

Yours truly, Svetozar Georgiev and Vassil Terziev Co-Founders and Co-CEOS,
Telerik

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rogerthis
Having HN as the only source of information is not a good thing. I didn't know
who Progress Corp were, and I would not know Telerik if my brother, who works
in big corporate, had not told me sometime ago.

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anonymousDan
What does telerik actually do/sell out of interest?

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atwebb
Although I'm sure they do other things, they sell .Net components, kind of a
"create grids/reporting/tables" with no code or UI development toolkit.

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malkia
I have several friends there. I've never used their products (neither .Net or
.js) but can't be happier for them :)

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Arnavion
I hope Fiddler remains free...

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bless1
Telerik makes awful

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digibo
Did you just create an account to say a half of a negative sentence? o_O

