Dan is right, I was thinking that microsoft was a normal company that had bought caligari as an asset. But that really hasn't been part of their history. So it is probably unlikely that truespace will ever come back. The idea of it being released as open source is really unlikely.
It appears that the entire Caligari team has been let go but I do not know about Ormandy. So I wonder what that says about 3d on the web. Is microsoft saying that it is not worth the investment?
It is sad to see Truespace go,even though it may not have been as powerful as the big apps. If the smaller apps like truespace or carrarra go out will they still feel a need to improve Maya and the related "big industry" apps?
Here is a link to a statement by Ton over at blendernation. It is interesting but I do not think Truespace becoming open source is going to happen.
http://www.blendernation.com/2009/05/21/truespace-story-ending/