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Off Topic: Microsoft has been busy... (fwd)
Anyone else notice that Microsoft has been pretty busy this week,
especially on April 1?
[reposted articles follow...]
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MICROSOFT BUYS SUN
by Devlin Nuhl
Redmond WA, April 1 (Reuters) - Microsoft Corporation announced after
the close today that it will buy Sun Microsystems in a deal valued at
$11.7 billion. The price works out to $50 a share, which is a premium
over Sun's close at $34. Microsoft will finance the deal by issuing 50
million shares of common stock, using some of its cash reserves, and
borrowing $5 billion at "very low rates" from a "long time strategic
partner" rumored to be Intel Corporation. Every 4 shares of Sun stock
will be exchanged for 1 share of newly issued Microsoft stock plus
approximately $100 in cash.
Bill Gates, Microsoft's Chairman said "It's time to kill Unix. Unix is
providing stiff competition to Windows NT in the server arena. We have
already placed NT on Digital and HP servers, and Sun was the only
substantial holdout. So we decided just to purchase Sun to assure that
their servers ship with NT." He continued, "We also wanted control over
Java to better position ourselves to, uh, compete with Netscape."
The deal was approved earlier today by the boards of both companies.
Large institutional holders of Sun are known to favor the deal so it
should get shareholder approval in the coming weeks. Privately, a Sun
board member said "the price was so sweet, we would be violating our
responsibility to the shareholders if we didn't accept the offer."
Scott McNealy, Chief Executive Officer of Sun, was unavailable for
comment. Several Sun employees expressed dismay, one adding simply that
"this sucks."
When asked about transition plans for Solaris, Sun's version of Unix,
Taj Raji, Sun's Vice President of Systems Software, said that the
"Solaris APIs will be wrapped around the NT megakernel in a seamless
fashion to produce a robust feature-rich operating environment." A
Microsoft spokesperson quickly added that "only native NT applications
certified by Microsoft get to use the flying windows logo."
Speculation about Intel's possible involvement centered on the SPARC
chips that power Sun's servers. Intel might incorporate the SPARC
architecture into their planned Hexium "You're Inside" family of
processors. If these chips were used in Sun servers, analysts say that
Intel would lock up the worldwide processor market.
As for Sun's Java technology, if Microsoft follows their standard
practice, they will make proprietary enhancements to assure market
share. One insider suggested that they might make "Java more like C++",
but others said that would be foolish. April Austin, a technology
analyst with Hambust-Quick in Oakland CA, commented that "the buyout
could really put a crimp on Netscape since Microsoft will control the
two major means of placing active content on the web, ActiveX and Java.
Microsoft will set the standards and Netscape will always be six months
behind the feature curve."
A spokesperson for the Department of Justice said there was no official
comment on the proposed transaction.. Although, a highly placed Justice
source felt that there shouldn't be any problems because "Microsoft is a
software company and Sun is a hardware company."
The combined company's yearly sales will be approximately $16 billion
based on end-of-year figures. For the day, Microsoft (MSFT.O) was up 1
5/8 at 97 7/8 and Sun (SUNW.O) was up 3 3/4 at 34. Officials at the
Pacific Stock Exchange reported that the volume on Sun April 30 calls
was 15 times normal. The SEC is investigating possible insider trading.
-----------------
HIGHER SOURCE RAISES STAKES IN INTERNET INDUSTRY
by Charles Forsythe
REDMOND -- Microsoft Corporation has announced plans to acquire the
Website and Internet development corporation Higher Source for an
undisclosed fee. "Higher Source has proven its commitment to strange
mind-control cults and UFO religions," said Microsoft spokeswoman,
Anita Klue,"Their willingness to kill themselves for the sake of their
technology is the kind of dynamic that Microsoft wants to promote."
In conjunction with the acquisition, Microsoft announced a new program
called "Active Cult 97", which is expected to be in place by late
1998. Active Cult aims to make the use of Microsoft technology more
of a religion-driven decision as opposed to a technology-driven
decision. "This isn't expected to be a big change for Microsoft's
customer base," explained Ms. Klue. Details of Active Cult were not
disclosed, but it was suggested that instead of crashing with the
infamous "blue screen of death" or "General Protection Fault",
Microsoft's operating systems would merely display the message
"Windows died for your sins."
Mike S. Brown, who writes about the industry in his PC Weak column
"M.S. Brown Knows" responded enthusiastically to the announcement.
"This really raises the stakes for Internet development. IBM may be
content to kill its own products, like OS/2, but Microsoft is willing
to kill its own developers and maybe even some customers. That's the
kind of bold difference that will make UNIX, OS/2 and the Mac
completely irrelevant by the end of 1996!" When is was pointed out
that 1996 was already over, Mr. Brown retorted,"No it's not! If it
was, then Microsoft would be behind schedule on Windows 97 -- which it
isn't."
An IBM employee, who asked to remain anonymous due to the fact that
the whole issue was "extremely silly," said that "IBM is committed to
the future of network computing and OS/2 is an important part of that
future." He added that,"IBM is not interested in promoting suicide.
If you want to talk about promoting suicide, talk to Microsoft's
ISVs. Can you say `Citrix'?"
Reaction amongst Windows users was generally positive. Ben de Miover,
CIO for a large company which recently switched its operations from
the Apple MacIntosh to Windows 95, explained,"Windows is really cool
because you can play Quake in, like, a window and stuff." He also
cited a complete lack of Windows 95 applications for the MacIntosh.
"How can modern business function without Windows 95 applications.
Y'know, like Quake?" In addition, he was pretty sure that OS/2 and
UNIX were "new wave bands from L.A."
Linus Torvalds was unavailable for comment.
--
Say union yes!! "And if I die today I'll be the Happy Phantom;
___ \ . ,. And I'll go chasin' the nuns out in the yard
_.-| | |\__/,| (`\ |And I'll run naked through the streets
{ | | |o o |__ _) ) | without my mask on; And I will never
"-.|___| _.( T ) ` / | need umbrellas in the rain; I'll wake
.--'-`-. _((_ `^--' /_< \ | up in strawberry fields every day; And
_.+|______|__.-||__)`-'(((/ (((/ | the atrocities of school I can forgive;
"Jesus can't play rugby 'cuz ` the Happy Phantom has no right to bitch;"
he only has twelve men" `_ _ _ _ _ -- Tori Amos _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _