Remember Chirac’s initiative that was met with rancorous laughter to launch a government-backed French Google competitor?

That adventure, dubbed Quaero at the time and today known as Exalead, received 19M€ in tax-payer subsidies.  I think it was written off by most of the investment community as a classic subsidized zombie company since the venture never really took off.

So it was of course with shock and awe that yesterday’s news cycle witnessed the announced acquisition of Exalead by Dassault Systemes (3rd-ranked software company on the European Truffle 100) for 135M€.  Sacre bleu !

Fréd Halley of Tioga Venture offers an excellent interpretation of this astonishing turn of fortunes…