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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ToySoldier who wrote (10545)	9/5/1998 12:46:00 AM
From: Sommers	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

Toy, Just kicking around some ideas. It's late, but here's my prompt reply. As you know, IBM has a rich acquisition history. They bought Lotus in '95 because workgroup software had yet to be Microsoft dominated. Then they added Tivoli in '96 to beef up it's network management strength. More recently, IBM bought Unison and CommQuest, following Gerstner's strategy to branch into the wireless space. While Sun and IBM may walk the precarious line of competitor/partner, don't forget the old saying, "your enemy is my enemy." Everyone knows IBM is a dominant player in "big iron," servers, notebooks and PCs, but forget software. Gerstner has spent the past few years positioning IBM for the future: PCs! Now this is exactly what McNealy is doing right now at Sun. Sun is turning it's sights to PCs at the same time they market low cost network computers! SPARC's big advantage is its low cost. McNealy has only really been after Microsoft for about three years now, when Sun launched Java in '95 as a serious contender for the industry standard. Sun then bought Micro Products '96 (fault tolerant technology) and a computer unit of Cray (I can't remember what they specialized in). I asked the acquisition question because we all know Gerstner and McNealy have one common goal: To slow/erode Microsoft's dominance. Maybe a merger is impractical, but it only seems to make common sense that unified forces would achieve common goals. And don't forget about Netscape. I believe they would be better off folded into Sun. Maybe it's Sun and Netscape that makes more sense now that I think of it... OTOH, Sun, Netscape and IBM? Now that would be formidable. To get back on topic, Toy, is your position neutral on Microsoft right now or heavily short? Take it easy and enjoy the weekend.