10ZiG Acquires BOSaNOVA System i Connectivity Products

December 8, 2009 Alex Woodie

10ZiG Technology, the provider of thin client terminals and related gear that previously went by the name BOSaNOVA, now has ownership rights over the System i connectivity products that it sold when it was BOSaNOVA, the Phoenix, Arizona, company announced yesterday.

As part of the deal with B.O.S–Better On-line Solutions, 10ZiG will obtain nearly all of the rights to four products, including BOSaNOVA Web, a browser-based terminal emulator; BOSaNOVA Secure, an encrypted TN5250 emulator; the e-Twinax Controller, a TCP/IP Controller that plugs into twinax devices but doesn’t use SNA; and BOSaNOVA Plus, twinax emulation cards.

The deal states that 10ZiG is now the sole worldwide distributor of these BOSaNOVA products. 10ZiG also gains control from B.O.S–Better On-line Solutions for all future R&D, and is now the only place for users of these products to obtain technical support.

“This acquisition means that customers will receive the same top-notch, U.S.-based support that they had received in the past, and we will continue to customize these products and invest in the System i market well into the future,” says Martin Pladgeman, president of 10ZiG Technology.

The deal will hopefully put to rest any confusion that customers have had over the products since 10ZiG changed its name from BOSaNOVA earlier this year. While 10ZiG maintained a relationship with B.O.S–Better On-line Solutions (a publicly traded Israeli company) for some offerings, it stopped distributing these four products that B.O.S–Better On-line Solutions owned under the BOSaNOVA brand.

Now that these products are under 10ZiG control, they will be actively developed and maintained again, Pladgeman says. The company has retained several key developers that had left B.O.S–Better On-line Solutions, including Israel “Izzy” Gal, the founder of B.O.S–Better On-line Solutions (who left the company several years ago). Gal will provide support to 10ZiG customers in Israel, Pladgeman says.

“The midrange group is back together,” Pladgeman says. “We’re injecting new life into the product.”

While 10ZiG has effectively acquired the BOSaNOVA products and related assets–including customer support agreements–it can’t lay claim to all of the BOSaNOVA assets. That’s because of the Israeli government’s Office of the Chief Scientist, which funded B.O.S–Better On-line Solutions and has a claim to some of its assets.

It was easier to structure the agreement as a “worldwide distributorship” than to navigate the Israeli bureaucracy for a cleaner break, Pladgeman says. But for all practical purposes, 10ZiG owns all of the assets, and it will have zero affect on maintenance or the ongoing development of the product, he says.

In addition to thin client terminals and System i connectivity solutions, 10ZiG also sells the Q3e encryption appliance and is involved in Citrix and VMware installations. For more information, visit the company’s Web site at www.10zig.com.