Microsoft to license Unix code

Jon maddog Hall maddog at li.org
Mon May 26 23:34:54 EDT 2003


Richard,

"Buying a corporation" is not exactly that easy, and particularly when one
is Microsoft and one is IBM.  First of all, unless M$ WANTED to be bought
(i.e. all the stockholders agreed it was a great idea), then there is lots
of stuff the stockholders could do to make an acquisition (even merely a
controlling acquisition) a VERY expensive issue.

I am not sure what the market cap of M$ is these days vs IBM.  Of course IBM
is bigger in employees, and probably assets, but I think M$'s ROI is a lot
higher, and the last I knew M$ had forty BILLION dollars in the bank, which
would make it hard for even IBM to buy them.

md
-- 
Jon "maddog" Hall
Executive Director           Linux(R) International
email: maddog at li.org         80 Amherst St. 
Voice: +1.603.672.4557       Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A.
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Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association

(R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries.




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