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January 22, 2007

business

Parallels not quite “the little company that could”

Posted Jan. 22, ’07, 8:48 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Business

Parallels Desktop for MacWe’re big fans of Parallels Desktop here at MacUser, and we had to admit we were surprised that such a small, virtually unknown company came out with such a blockbuster product. Only, it turns out that they may not be so small after all.

In an article in Fortune this morning, it was revealed that Parallels is, in fact, owned by a much larger company called SWsoft, which itself is a virtualization company, though focused on the enterprise market:

SWsoft and its Parallels subsidiary are both Russian-American operations. SWsoft CEO Serguei Beloussov, based in Virginia, calls the shots for programmers who are based in Moscow. Parallels employed only seven when SWsoft bought it, but today has 100 people, mostly in Russian R&D.
What’s odd about this, though, is that the deal was never publicly acknowledged until now. Parallels marketing manager Ben Rudolph fired off an email to reassure the company’s customers:
As you may or may not have seen, Fortune magazine published a story this morning revealing the fact that Parallels is owned by SWsoft, another leading player in the virtualization space.

While this is definitely a substantial announcement, I want to assure you that the relationship that you have with Parallels, and with me, will NOT change. Parallels will still have its own brand, site, and team, we will simply be leveraging SWsoft’s substantial experience, talent and resources to make our products even better, and get the out the door even faster.

Should this bother you? Not really. It’s not as if anything has changed; if you’ve been using Parallels, you’ve already been reaping the fruits of this deal. However, it may perhaps shed some light on why Apple has not simply bought out Parallels to incorporate into Leopard.


4 Comments

E.T.Cook Author Profile Page said:

Actually, it should bother you. SWSoft is famous for Plesk, which in terms of customer support is a nightmare. I have long despised Plesk, and thus SWSoft for their lack of customer support. Amazing products, but if you want to be treated like a decent customer, you need to be an ISP, or be bled dry through support contracts.

There have been many of time that I needed critical support from SWSoft, even going so far as to calling their home offices...which from the sound of it was being answered by a transgendered milkmaid in the middle of Kiev.

January 22, 2007 9:42 AM
Dan Moren Author Profile Page said:

I'm not prepared to condemn them on the sins of their parent company, especially as Parallels has, by all accounts, been quite responsive with their customer service. Despite being owned by SWsoft, they are still maintaining their own brand, and, again, they've been owned by them for three years. I don't see any reason to get antsy now that the ownership is merely out in the open.

January 22, 2007 10:10 AM
E.T.Cook Author Profile Page said:

I will agree with that, except that emprically, SWSoft always starts off very responsive, later on not expanding their support infrastructure to the capacity they need to...whether that be a matter of choice or because they don't have the resources, I don't know.

More then anything, this is just interesting to me, because of how integral SWSoft within the scope of my livelihood. Hopefully they will be able to support end users far better than they have supported small businesses thus far.

January 22, 2007 10:30 AM
Dim said:

Yay for us Russians! =D I never knew Russians were Mac fans... =]

Anyways, this shouldn't really matter because it's not like Parallels has to change now that everyone knows. Hey, who knows? Maybe SWsoft will learn from Parallels. =]

January 22, 2007 7:05 PM

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