Do you guys remember that article linked in my previous message? Compares RHAT to CORL as well as RHAT to INPR. Here's the relevant discussion:
"When we hear the persistent rumors of a Red Hat-Corel takeover, we should consider how they could potentially help the company broaden into new, profitable areas. Essentially, Red Hat would be gaining a key position on the desktop, on Windows, Mac, and Linux systems. This would be a massive departure from the company's stated plan of moving Linux into the server space first and then onto desktops when the time is right. Worse still, a high percentage of Corel's recent growth has been in the home and low-budget markets, which have notoriously sad demand for paid support. Corel's Linux distribution is also about as different from Red Hat's as one could possibly imagine: DEB instead of RPM packaging, desktop instead of server focus, KDE instead of GNOME. This acquisition would mostly bring Windows and Macintosh developers and support personnel into Red Hat, a company in need of more Unix and Linux programmers and support personnel. Overall, I'd have to say that the acquisition would be a poor decision at this time. Corel is the last independent provider of office software, and they do seem ripe for a takeover in general. Perhaps in a few years, when the Linux desktop market has matured, this sort of acquisition would make sense, but not at this time.
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On the other end of the acquisition spectrum (i.e. difficult, large, and potentially industry-rocking) is Inprise Corporation. Formerly known as Borland, Inprise is, even more so than Corel, a beautiful example of an old software giant struggling to recover from Microsoft's blows, despite a great technology portfolio. I've always argued that development tools are the key to the development of new software markets, so perhaps we should consider how an Inprise acquisition or merger would look.
The greatest problem with this deal would be, ironically, that Inprise has too much to offer for its price. They produce amazing distributed object technology (especially the VisiBroker CORBA ORB, which is undoubtedly the best in the industry), a typical, enterprise-strength application server (brilliantly named "Inprise Application Server"), databases, object management tools, and, of course, Windows- and Java-based development tools, their old Borland crown jewels. Red Hat would love this kind of entre into serious enterprise markets, but they would also end up with a substantial portfolio of Windows-centric development technology (for those who don't follow Linux news, I should point out that Borland is fairly far along in porting these tools to Linux as well).
Furthermore, you might ask, "If Red Hat just bought a compiler company, why buy Borland too?" But that question can actually reveal the solution to Red Hat's problems as well. Imagine if Borland's compiler group (which has produced one of the finest, standards-compliant C++ compilers around) merged with the engineers from Cygnus and began transferring bcc's technology to gcc. Borland's products could quickly benefit from gcc's incredible cross-platform support, which the GNU compilers would gain the speed and features of its commercial competitors.
Red Hat, then, could spin off the old Borland as a separately-managed subsidiary, allowing it to continue its cross- platform focus without interfering with the company's core Linux business. The new Borland would benefit from reduced development costs with the elimination of its compiler division, a group which would otherwise face substantial costs to deal with the addition of a Linux version and the inevitable (very expensive) IA-64 version. Some of Inprise's other, non-core products (such as JDataStore or MIDAS) might be, on an individual basis, attractive purchases for other enterprise software companies, but Visibroker and Inprise Application Server alone would be well worth Red Hat's time and stock. These two products could lift Red Hat's offerings to the very highest levels of the enterprise and open up massive new possibilities for the company's education and professional services groups.
More importantly, they allow Red Hat to offer an integrated package from the development tools, to the OS, to the application server and ORB. This level of integration has been the key to Microsoft's success, and the same integrated strategies are lifting Sun/iPlanet, IBM, and Oracle to new heights. Those vendors (HP, SCO, Compaq, etc) without compelling applications all along the line will slowly lose market share to their competitors who can provide them.
Filling the gaps in its enterprise product line will not be easy or quick for Red Hat, but the company now has the financial resources and popular recognition it needs to start down this path. Who knows? Maybe the next 6 months will go down in history as an even more incredible period for the Linux community than the last 6 have been."
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