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Microsoft to Buy Rational and/or Borland?
oblivious writes "I got this in e-mail this evening: According to a Reuters report that crossed the wires late today, the speculation is that Microsoft will make bids to buy both Rational and Borland. Shares of both Rational and Borland are up on the news, and so far both IBM and Microsoft have no comment on this report." We recently ran a story about IBMs planned purchase of Rational. Chris didn't make clear in here - it's not that Microsoft might buy both, but that Borland might be a likely target, if a bid to buy Rational out from under IBM fails, which it is likely too. Rational and IBM have signed the substantive portion of the agreement already, so any sort of counter bid would have some fun legal consequences for all involved.
Excellent! Where can I pre order Visual Pascal?
Maybe MS wants to replace VB with something less shitty.
Next Headline : Microsoft buys C# and Visual Studio. In their attempt to own the world, Microsoft accidentally bought something they already own! Who watches for these kind of things?
J#Builder
Turbo Pascal.NET
Now nobody will say that MS does not innovate.
All of Borland's and Rationale's innovations are belong to MS!
I'll do it for cheesy poofs.
Unfortunately, I think MS wants to replace something less shitty than VB with... VB.
This news brought to you via your XBox home media center, by MSNBC.
No, we're not a monopoly yet. Nothing to worry about. Go back to playing your game made by Rare.
Now we see the basis for Bobby Schmidt's "Hell Freezes Over" column in the latest CUJ. The next Visual C++ is standards-compliant by vacuuming up a quality comptetitor...
No, that's a troll.
But Borland has a lot of Java product, and owning that would help to maneuver it out of the C# path...
No, that's a troll, too...
Borland's CLX library has the potential to do what QT could not, popularize GUI-applications that run under 'Doze and X, so you could blunt that attempt to compete if you owned the product... (seriously, I can't name a single application on the local CompUSA shelf using QT, please educate me)
No, that's YAT (Yet Another Troll)
The fact that the DOJ is a singleton-class, MS server application running inside the Beltway box means that MS can do whatever the fsck it likes and laugh about it...
Ah, now that is a sufficiently gratuitous troll...
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
Now I am simply waiting to here a break-in announcement from Bill Gates that
he has declared himself the world's emperor.
Steve Ballmer at Internal M$ meeting:
"The US Senate will no longer be of any concern to us. I have
just received word that the Emperor has dissolved the government
permanently. The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept
away."
Employee: "But that's impossible. How will the Emperor maintain
control without the bureaucracy?"
Ballmer: "The regional sales managers now have direct control over their
territories. Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of our software."
The next Visual C++ is standards-compliant by vacuuming up a quality comptetitor...
For Microsoft, this is standards-compliant.
I pledge allegiance to the flag...
of the Corporate States of America...
If only I had moderation points today... this WAS truly funny if you are a Quake player. Someone please mod this up as funny.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
I thought Microsoft bit off more than it could chew when it bought the Catholic church.
Is this thing on? Hello?
Hi honey! Did I strike a nerve?
...
Perhaps you missed the whole "prevalent argument" conditional put on that?
Nope, but you used so many words to make your point that my clipboard got tired and I couldn't paste it.
the majority of Slashdotters will in one story
Actually, you got me there. The majority could be saying any old thing, but my threshold is +3, so what's going on in the bowels of Slashdot passes me right by. Which means I'm huddled in Slashdot's appendix by the way.
Firstly let me get the de rigueur insult in here: You suck eggs and your mother wears army boots! Save the insults for the next girl guides meeting moron because they just case you for the savage that you are.
Mine was better.
xxx
"your mother wears army boots!"
On that note, can anybody explain why this is actually an insult? I never understood. Surely there are many mothers in the military. And army boots are rather sturdy. If my mother wore army boots I think that would imply she could kick your mother's ass. Actually, I think arming more mothers would be a good idea all-around.
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
I especially liked this part of the story:
'"We never comment on rumors and speculation," a Microsoft spokeswoman said.'
No, they only start them.