<Daniel says: And DOJ, by being so rude as to actually consider enforcing the law in this context, did not screw Scott Cook and friends out of $2billion; intu is still worth something, not? >
INTU is currently worth $1.6B. The INTU offer was for $2B worth of 5/94 MSFT, price about $40. (Not sure of that date, but something like that.) This stock would now be worth approximately $6.6B. So, you're right. They weren't screwed out of $2B, it was more like $5B.
MS Money, offered to NOVL as part of the deal, could be improved to compete with Quicken. MSFT's since done it. NOVL wanted and agreed to take MS Money, believing they could do it as well. Nobody held a gun to their head. The DOJ has no right under the anti-trust laws to "guess" that NOVL would screw it up. MSFT was forced to abandon the deal because the DOJ was stalling, doing nothing for months, while the value of the deal dissolved. This is not law enforcement, it's harassment, and it's not in the anyone's best interest.
<Daniel says: Oh, and one final, needlessly snide reply on the subject of "world class software": Intel fixed up the most obvious warts in the x86 architecture in 1985, with the release of the 386. It only took Microsoft ten years to catch up and provide a 32bit operating system to go with the 386 arch. Spare me the "world class software" lecture. >
You say it took MSFT ten years to produce a best-selling 32-bit OS. How long did it take their competition? And were customers demanding 32-bit or were they writing 16-bit apps like crazy?
MSFT can be beaten, and we're all on the lookout for the new king. Apparently you believe low quality and slow development speed are their Achilles heel. Please explain why and which competitors will benefit. |
