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Technology Stocks : INPR - Inprise to Borland (BORL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Gary105 who wrote (3446)	11/21/1999 10:46:00 AM
From: i-node	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 5102

2a. any thoughts on msft using inpr as backdoor linux entry? I'm not sure why the term "backdoor"... A significant aspect of Linux popularity will be the availability of the powerful tools we now have under Windows. To date, no one (I repeat NO ONE) makes tools of the caliber Borland (now Inprise) does. Period. In addition, as someone who has followed this company for years, I can point to Microsoft's unfair practices as the principal reason for Borland's recent problems. If you look back to the days of Paradox and Quattro Pro, you see the better products (Borland's) defeated by the unfair price competition -- where MSFT was allowed to sell its competing products for below their costs in order to drive Borland out (they were successful). In the Linux marketplace, it does not appear at this time that a similar threat exists. So, I take issue with the term "Backdoor". I think the manufacturers of these kinds of software tools will drive Linux, not merely tag along. Don't know about item (1) of your question, but my recollection is that MSFT took no stake in INPR -- they simply purchased the rights to Borland's patent for technique used in BCB and Delphi of allowing the editing of forms as plain text and maybe some lesser stuff.

To: Gary105 who wrote (3446)	11/21/1999 8:13:00 PM
From: Dennis Nicks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5102

I agree with David on the "backdoor" Linux strategy. I think that the market is just waking up to realize why Inprise is such a good Linux play. Why do you think that Corel partnered with Inprise on Linux? Corel has been around long enough to realize that a tools company is a good ally. Inprise is a direct play in the Linux market. As for MSFT owning a portion of INPR, yes they do. You can read it for yourself in the SEC filing: freeedgar.com or take my word that MSFT bought 10% of INPR in the form of Class C preferred shares. These are NON-VOTING shares, so its not going to get in the way of a buy-out. MSFT's investment in INPR does not limit what the company can do or what platforms they can support. As for a BEAS look-alike, I'm not sure. Other than Visibroker ORB, it seems to me that Inprise has had a difficult time entering that market. The company has been living off of the profits from their tools business. The company has been spending $40,000,000 a year in R&D. I imagine much of that is invested in developing the yet unprofitable enterprise tools and components. When (and if) their enterprise business takes off, we'll be really riding high... Hope that helps.. Dennis