...and sold to the bidder in the back. According to Danish website Computerworld, enterprise search vendor Mondosoft, which is currently in liquidation, has been bought by fellow countrymen SurfRay.

While SurfRay, a search vendor mainly active in northern Europe, had expressed interest in acquiring it as early as last spring, it was generally expected Mondosoft would be sold to Asger Jensby's JMI Invest. According to SurfRay, with the core Mondosearch technology they could provide a serious alternative to FAST and Autonomy, but at a lower price point. (And yes, you'd be right in thinking that every Volkssearch would like to compare itself to Ferrari and Rolls-Royce.)

The last waltz may be reserved for JMI Invest, however: SurfRay is not really interested in Mondosoft's SharePoint-specific offering, Ontolica. It might still be sold separately to JMI and turn up in a new guise as a WebSphere tool. SurfRay's director Martin Veise has indicated, however, that he first wants to speak to Mondosoft's employees about this (which is probably what FAST should have done when they acquired Convera).