Bad Idea Mergers

Dan Kohn (dan@teledesic.com)
Fri, 23 Aug 1996 18:16:36 -0700


>> And if Netscape and Sun are so chummy (as they seemed to be), will Sun
>> buy Netscape? One has to wonder...

>Sun probably has more desire to buy Apple than buy Netscape at this
>point.

Question:

A combination of Sun/Apple/Netscape is the 1997 equivalent of what
failed 1994 deal?

Answer:

Ray Noorda's Novell purchased WordPerfect to dominate the application
market and Unix Systems Laboratory (from AT&T) to get an operating
system. The goal was to build synergy to compete against Microsoft on
all fronts.

My Prediction:

History repeats itself, with the same glowing results (for Microsoft I
mean, Novell canned Noorda and is now in the dumps).