Local software company Ranchero just sold its’ creamy-smooth RSS reader, NetNewsWire, to RSS agglomeration juggernaut Newsgator. Paid users, TidBITS reports and NewsGator confirms, get a bonus:

As part of this deal, existing NetNewsWire full-version customers will receive a free 2-year paid subscription to NewsGator Online. More details will be announced with the next release of NetNewsWire, which will include advanced features and functions from NewsGator Online.

In theory, wiser persons inform me, that means a full cross-platform blogstream, retaining read state from machine to machine across platforms. Oh man. Two years is surely long enough for Google to shake the crap out of the underwhelming Google Reader.

Thank you Paul for hipping me to NNW at some point in the past year!