Microsoft and Adobe talk acquisition and Apple Adobe Systems stock soared during Thursday's trading in apparent excitement that its chief executive had held talks with Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer. Shares in Adobe were halted by trading-system circuit breakers after surging 17 per cent, according to Bloomberg. Wall St was excited to learn that Adobe's Shantanu Narayen …
a) Ballmer looking to see if he can get a job at Adobe
b) A way for Microsoft to spend more than $40 billion on something it doesn't need
c) That Microsoft's lawyers are bored and need some anti-trust fun
d) It was a fun way to try and boost Microsoft's share price
e) They were bored and wanted to mess with people
Ballmer, king of the flying office chairs!
This post has been deleted by its author
Never thought I'd say this but, bring back Bill Gates! Ballmer is an unmitigated disaster and is running MS aground with his lack of leadership. The company's in trouble... Quick, let's take another software maker over and pretend that Microsoft CS6 isn't really CS5 with a Redmond badge on the cover. Never let a bean-counter run a business.
Is MS really so scared that Apple is going to kick more sand in their faces that they run to Adobe for help? Adobe can't even get their own products to work properly.
Android is unquestionably the biggest danger to MS as it fights them on their own turf. Meanwhile Google are gearing up to go after the living room, thus threatening MS's dream of dominating in that space also.
In both fields Apple competes, but Apple is always happy to be a niche player making a lot of money out of a smaller market. Google is going right after Microsoft's lunch by playing the commoditize and monetize model, except Google money comes from ads not licenses, giving MS a blunt value for money problem.
So why the hell are MS fretting about Apple's clearly self-limiting model? I'd be watching RIM and Google more closely if I were them.
Still, Apple is the old enemy, and Ballmer is nothing if not backward looking.
Google had better make sure that both Apple AND Google will have an adequate alternative to Flash, in HTML5 or whatever.... once Microsoft have Adobes reigns, I'll bet that Flash lags on non-Windoze platforms in the same way that Mono lags Silverlight.
Fucker. I hope the US equivalent of the UK's 'Mergers & Monopolies Commission' can head this off at the pass, but I doubt they will - and so doubts Wall St, apparently.
I suppose Google could put lots of money into developing Gnash - but they'll have to make great legal strides to force an open file format development process at the very least.
...stuff Flash. Adobe Photoshop et al, that's where the fun lies.
Can you imagine the Mac fanboys having to buy MS stuff. ha ha ha ha ha haaaaa. Old Job's boy having to be nice to his main competitor, otherwise risk loosing the flagship programs.
Of course the flipside is PS and other could become bloated eye candy.
Oh GIMP != Photoshop
The end of Flash and the beginning of mass adoption of HTML5. MS will spend way too much on a dead and dieing fast monopoly thus shrinking their coffers to borg others :)
The ecosystem will be in a better place within 5 years after this, wait and see. Just like Oracle and MySQL, postgres will prosper. HTML5, open alternative will ultimately prevail. Power to the freetards and open standards, down with monopolies and the closed!!!
Sometimes M&A does mean Murders and Axicutions :-)
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