Qualcomm Buys Now Software

Today Qualcomm, the wireless communications company best known in the Macintosh world for Eudora, announced the acquisition of Now Software, makers of Now Utilities and Now Up-to-Date. The press release noted that “Qualcomm intends to support Now’s flagship products,” so we hope that means an update to Now Utilities for Mac OS 8, although a Qualcomm representative said that they have no details to provide at this time. More interesting is what Qualcomm gets out of the deal since Now’s products don’t obviously fit with the Eudora division’s focus on email. Rumor has it that Now is working on a revolutionary technology along the lines of the Now Synchronize data synchronization software. Qualcomm must have been attracted by the thought of synchronizing email and schedules across multiple platforms, including Macs, PCs, Newtons, PalmPilots, and Qualcomm’s cellular phones.