10.20.07
Analysts on a McAfee-Novell Merger and Reflections on Complex Acquisition Logic
Shallow thinking evades reality
There are some interesting predictions going about. It’s not only the far-fetched vision of Microsoft acquiring Novell that leads to scary speculations. In fact, have a look at this new one.
Analysts have suggested that McAfee would be better off merging with a larger firm such as HP or Novell.
McAfee is far too expensive for Ron Hovsepian’s ongoing shopping spree [1, ] and the two companies have too little in common. However, it is something to bear in mind for strategic reasons.
Remember XenSource, which is no more? It was acquired by Citrix, probably for Windows and Microsoft to have. Analysts were baffled. Why would Citrix want Xen? Only Microsoft seems to benefit from such a move and, as the references as the bottom show, Citrix and Microsoft are probably in cahoot. A new article from the Register still fails to give a compelling and specific reason why Citrix should buy Xen.
With XenSource, Citrix completed this push, adding technology that sits at the very heart of the data center. Now, according to Wasson, Citrix is well poised to continue its mission of becoming a “successful, multi-billion dollar software company.”
The moral of the story is that there’s more than business sense and logic to acquisitions. It has a lot to do with business relationships, which can also be personal and involve private conspiracies.
Related articles:
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.