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Microsoft Invests in Inprise (aka Borland)

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the buying-more-power dept.

Stephen Legge writes " Inprise (formerly Borland, makers of Delphi, JBuilder, among other things) has established a strategic agreement with Microsoft. Microsoft has bought $25 million (10%) worth of Inprise preferred stock. Read the the press release here. " Only eight years ago, this would have been unthinkable-odd how much the world shifts. Of course, then again, WP5.1 was the de facto standard.

2 of 182 comments (clear)

  1. As an Inprise employee... by JeremyR · · Score: 3
    I'm not sure just what to make of this yet. At least from one point of view, this is a good thing, because I think it gives investors a little more confidence in us (our stock price is up 30-odd % just today!) On the other hand, it does sort of have the ring to it of "selling out to the Evil Empire" or something to that effect. But then, so far it seems to be business as usual. I haven't heard any talk of putting the Solaris/Linux development tools on a back burner. We have a number of people within the company (myself included) who are very excited about Linux, so I don't think this would be permitted to happen. :-)

    You might take what I say with a grain of salt--I work for a different division of the company, and I don't see very much of what's happening over in the Borland.com division (which appears to be the part of the company most affected by this deal). I guess we'll all have to stay tuned.

  2. $5 billion here, $25 million there by jetson123 · · Score: 3
    Microsoft seems to be adopting a strategy whereby they invest in any company that has some influence on standards.

    In the case of Borland, they probably want support for their Java "extensions" in JBuilder, plus more commitment by Borland to COM and MFC.

    But despite some forays onto other platforms, Borland seemed largely a Windows company anyway. It's a shame because some of their products would have been ideal for a cross-platform strategy.

    I wonder whether these "strategic investments" shouldn't be curtailed. While an investment does not mean the same thing as full ownership, it does guarantee a "seat at the table" and significant influence. It may also be easier to get past antitrust regulators for now.

    Microsoft has sufficiently deep pockets to make those kinds of investments in just about any company that matters, and that bodes ill for any kind of real competition.