Earlier this week Roxio announced plans to sell its software business unit to Sonic Solutions in a deal valued at US$80 million. Roxio plans to rename itself Napster and will focus solely on its digital music business. The news has left some Mac users wondering about the future of Roxio’s Mac products — the company makes Toast 6 Titanium CD and DVD authoring software, as well as an accompanying audio product called Jam.
Sonic Solutions President Robert J. Doris clarified his company’s position on the future of Toast in a conference call with investors and analysts shortly after the acquisition announcement was made.
“Of course we are going to continue,” he said. “Toast is a very long-standing, very well-regarded application on the Mac.”
Doris indicated that his company’s general posture regarding Macintosh software is to try not to compete directly with Apple in those areas where they create software of their own. “But Toast, if you look to the product, it’s really quite a bit beyond that,” said Doris. “It’s a real professional mastering product.”
Doris concluded that Sonic has every intention of “continuing and elaborating” Toast over time.