PathTotal? SumLore?

SumTotal acquired Pathlore this afternoon for $48 million, $29 million of which was cash. Here’s the press release. You can link from there to a webcast recording of today’s analyst call. I haven’t listened yet because I don’t want to be biased. The mind reels at the thought of a Docent+Click+Pathlore code base. Also, I didn’t see Lee Maxie’s name in the release, but his fingerprints have to be on the paperwork for this deal. The most surprising aspect for me is that I really don’t give a hoot. A couple of years ago, everyone was drinking the LMS KoolAde. Now that that frenzy is past, tracking the LMS market could be a cure for insomnia.

The exciting action has passed on to collaboration, simulation, workflow, and connecting: doing instead of reporting. That’s an oversimplification, to be sure, but once things are over the chasm, they begin to bore me.