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Technology Stocks : BORL: Time to BUY! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: David Miller who wrote (9503)	3/19/1998 8:19:00 PM
From: shane forbes	Respond to of 10836

David: The enterprise is the way to go and MSFT recognises that this is the next step. But BORL is not adopting MSFT's methods here! I suspect there are many ways to develop these n-tier apps and each has its own benefits and limitations. Though MSFT will invariably get a sizeable piece, I do not think MSFT will risk jepordizing their Windows operating system dominance in the process. Since the enterprise is much more than Windows or MSFT (for now) that leaves the door open for a company like BORL and others to develop tools that attack the problem in alternative ways. They don't "compete squarely" with MSFT because they are not duplicating what MSFT is advocating. The biggie is that MSFT cannot embrace 100% JAVA. BORL can and is. Similarly MSFT cannot openly "strongly" support CORBA. BORL can and is. BORL can also support COM and DCOM. The other thing that BORL is focusing on that MSFT may not have a very good offering (yet) is middleware though I do not have a clue if this is true. This means that as long as these technologies are considered viable by enough developers, and I think there are plenty of hard-core enterprise developers who like JAVA and CORBA who will see that MSFT does not have the tools to support development choices in these environments, BORL is OK. Any way we will find out soon enough when the number and size of the enterprise deals is announced with this q's release. Shane.

To: David Miller who wrote (9503)	3/20/1998 8:07:00 AM
From: i-node	Respond to of 10836

The trick is to NOT compete squarely with MSFT. With the greatest respect, Shane, Borland is still in direct competition with Microsoft. Recognize these words? Borland had recognized, even before DY came on board, that MSFT had whipped it handily in the shrink-wrap marketplace. Fine products like Quattro Pro & Paradox were consistently shut down by MSFT's competing products on the basis of price competition alone (while DOJ had its head -- well, you know). While Borland will always have to compete w/ MSFT to a certain extent, I agree with Shane, they are not competing squarely with MSFT; they are offering stuff MSFT hasn't touched and probably won't. In software businesses today, even publicly held companies have to find a niche market where they don't have to compete head on with a MSFT. This is what Borland has done. MSFT doesn't seem to be very interested in this market -- not to say, MSFT has no interest in the enterprise -- but they don't seem interested in this little corner of the enterprise. Overall, this has been a very sensible move for Borland and MSFT will not touch them UNLESS they do it just to get rid of the threat of FUTURE competition from them.... David