Summary: A timely comparison between what Microsoft does to Yahoo! and what Microsoft does to Novell in order to turn any competitor into an ally

Microsoft's corporate hijack of Yahoo! is almost complete now that former Microsoft executives and partners run the company and those who remained inside Yahoo! are leaving too (this company's Consumer Products Head is the latest departure). It is not troubling news for Microsoft's insider who is running the company and is said to receive $47 million in benefits. What a disgusting display of power from Microsoft. It's likely that no laws are broken here, not even when Microsoft hires AstroTurfers to undermine Yahoo! and Google.

“Microsoft is said to have paid Verizon half a billion dollars to dump Google and channel all customers in Microsoft's direction.”A few months ago we wrote about Microsoft's deal with Verizon [1, 2]. Microsoft is said to have paid Verizon half a billion dollars to dump Google and channel all customers in Microsoft's direction. Novell's very recent deal with Verizon [1, 2] came just shortly later (see the press release [1, 2, 3] and new coverage from the press in New England and elsewhere [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]). It is worth keeping track of this because Microsoft to Novell is in many ways like Microsoft to Yahoo!

Novell has also been occupied by former Microsoft executives/boosters over the past few years (the same goes for European regulators to a lesser extent). In turn, judging by the past week's news, former Novell staff finds itself in top Diebold positions. Another new example of a person with past inside Novell is David Fleck, who becomes a marketing vice president.

The company also announced that David Fleck, former vice president of marketing and business development for Second Life, has joined IMVU as vice president of marketing.

More of Novell's former PR staff finds itself inside a new host.

A tech PR agency veteran with client experience including HP, Lenovo and Novell, Margherita thrives on European PR strategy and campaign coordination. Steve Loynes, director at Chameleon, says: “Margherita’s international background and extensive experience is hugely relevant for our international work and we are pleased to have her on board.”

What PR people do is spread dishonesty with apparent sincerity. Here for example is Novell's latest PR response to an article about Red Hat:

A recent article in in TechTarget has speculated that only one commercial Linux vendor will prevail and be viable in the data center, arguing that Novell and others won’t be able to compete. This kind of simplistic analysis makes for a good headline but, we believe, is bad research based on faulty logic and a selective use of the facts.

What a group of hypocrites. If anyone makes use of "faulty logic and a selective use of the facts" it's Novell's PR department. We gave a very large number of examples before. Does Novell's PR department consider itself the foundation of truth now? PR is of course derived from propaganda. ⬆

"[The Novell/Microsoft package] provides IP peace of mind for organizations operating in mixed source environments."

--Ian Bruce, Novell's PR Director