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License proliferation has been a hot topic amongst the open source community for the past couple of years. I am happy to report that the Eclipse Foundation and IBM have collaborated to do our bit to help by superseding the Common Public License (CPL) with the Eclipse Public License (EPL). This means that the CPL will no longer be considered an active open source license.
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Defense contractor Applied Research Associates has acquired Virtual Heroes, a game developer which has shown a particular skill in creating games for business or educational purposes.
Albuquerque, N.M.-based ARA bought Virtual Heroes, based in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park, for an undisclosed sum. Virtual Heoes specializes in “serious games,” or those which have some kind of educational or business purpose beyond pure entertainment.
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Rosetta Stone staged a successful initial public offering on Wall Street this morning, becoming only the third business to do so this year and the first to sell above its pricing. How did Rosetta Stone do it? Did the company speak the right language?
First, Rosetta Stone took advantage of its high-tech teaching approach, its high-profile ad campaign and the lack of publicly held competitors. Berlitz uses a similar no-translation teaching technique, but Berlitz is a privately held company. Second, Rosetta Stone's IPO was helped by its relatively low float number, or shares available for purchase.Finally, investors also liked Rosetta Stone's vision for the future. Rosetta Stone chief executive Tom Adams said earlier this month that his company will use part of the IPO proceeds to expand overseas and to add a social-networking feature: the company plans to create an online "socialization environment" to allow customers to practice their new languages with each other.