Was There Any Mystery to Neokast’s Ending?

There once was a company called Neokast, which made live-streaming P2P software and received positive if unspecific coverage from this and other sites in early 2007. One writer in particular, Robert X. Cringely, pitched the startup as the second coming.

Now, he’s learned that Neokast fell off the map circa September of last year, and its technical team is working on a new startup. That much seems true — the company site is completely dead. Our logic would say Neokast has just gone out of business, but Cringely thinks otherwise. His conclusion? Neokast was bought by Microsoft under a veil of secrecy and nobody can talk about it. It was a small enough deal to keep out of regulatory filings, and Microsoft wanted the technology rather than the employees, and Cringley further speculates that Microsoft may release the code as part of a Windows update. But then Cringely adds, “There’s no indication, by the way, that Microsoft has done this.”

It’s a head-scratcher of a theory, and of course we’re skeptical, but we’re poking around and will get back to you if there’s any more nuance to be had.