Shallow thinking evades reality

There are some interesting predictions going about. It's not only the far-fetched vision of Microsoft acquiring Novell that leads to scary speculations. In fact, have a look at this new one.

Analysts have suggested that McAfee would be better off merging with a larger firm such as HP or Novell.

McAfee is far too expensive for Ron Hovsepian's ongoing shopping spree [1, ] and the two companies have too little in common. However, it is something to bear in mind for strategic reasons.

Remember XenSource, which is no more? It was acquired by Citrix, probably for Windows and Microsoft to have. Analysts were baffled. Why would Citrix want Xen? Only Microsoft seems to benefit from such a move and, as the references as the bottom show, Citrix and Microsoft are probably in cahoot. A new article from the Register still fails to give a compelling and specific reason why Citrix should buy Xen.

With XenSource, Citrix completed this push, adding technology that sits at the very heart of the data center. Now, according to Wasson, Citrix is well poised to continue its mission of becoming a "successful, multi-billion dollar software company."

The moral of the story is that there's more than business sense and logic to acquisitions. It has a lot to do with business relationships, which can also be personal and involve private conspiracies.

Related articles:

• Citrix and Microsoft make nice at VMWorld



• Microsoft, Citrix To Extend Virtualization Alliance



• Will Microsoft Buy the New Citrix?



• Heady Days for Virtual Systems



• What the XenSource deal says about open source