System/asset management ... <contd>

A few days ago i wrote abt Altiris etc. There is still more going on in that area.
Macrovision announced yesterday that it is acquiring InstallShield (private) for 76 million. While at first Macrovision looks like an odd buyer, in the long term it makes sense for buyers of products from either companies to have a combined solution (setup and license/copyright management).

So now both the big independent Microsoft Installation tool providers have been assimilated!

The logical extension for Macrovision would be to now provide digital delivery / online updates. The two players in this area are Digital River (DRIV) and Intraware (ITRA).
Digital River is the leader but is well-priced right now. Intraware is a smaller and shall i say, not so stable/mature, operation.
I own a good number of ITRA.