Mr. OpEd Retires

This is Freddy Latherdon, Mr. OpEd's ace reporter. I have received word today, that in a sudden decision, he has elected to stop consulting and writing Revit OpEd. Yes I know, very sudden!!

While working in Abu Dhabi he received an offer to purchase several franchise locations of Subway, the sandwich shop familiar to many people, a frequent lunch stop for him. In addition to that he met a few folks who run a ballooning operation and he now intends to plan and train for a round the world balloon adventure to begin sometime next September.

This came as shock to me, not to mention his wife and children, as I'm sure it does for some of his readers. I know that I'll miss his contributions here and perhaps, with his permission I can try to keep it running somehow though I really don't know Revit that well myself. Perhaps with some help from others I can do it.

Effective today - no more Revit OpEd, unless I can ressurect it somehow! Sorry folks!

P.S. What day is today? gotcha?

Hostile Takeover - Google takes on Autodesk AND Bentley

Latherdon - 2008

In a surprise move, some say shocking, this morning Google announced its intent to take over Autodesk AND Bentley. Analysts say this is a strategic acquisition to take control of the "Information" in Building Information Modeling (BIM). No details were provided regarding how the combination of two major rivals for the computer aided design marketplace would be managed. Nor did the announcement discuss the likely lawsuit, from other cad vendors like Solid Works, ArchiCAD to name just two, claiming anti-trust violations. Google management stated that they intend to offer $12.50 per share for Autodesk shares and $6.50 per share for Bentley though Bentley remains a privately held company. Based on current market value this places the entire deal in the $2 gazillion range.

Attempts to reach competing software vendors for comment were not possible before releasing this news.

About the Author: Freddy Latherdon
Freddy has been on hiatus since undergoing knee surgery after a unexplained billards accident. He returned to work just in time to capture the essence of what will turn out the be the biggest BIM story yet, assuming the deal goes through.

Yes...this is nonsense...please don't panic...!!!

In separate announcement Google introduced its latest feature for Gmail, Custom Time. Now you can never be late with your response, you could even be early, earlier than the request in the first place!