"Slated argued that if Microsoft cannot beat its competitors, it simply buys them."In the particular context, Slated argued that if Microsoft cannot beat its competitors, it simply buys them. With "buying", exclusionary deals, such as the one with Novell, can be considered as well.
He also sarcastically argues that Ballmer does not "give a damn about alienating parts of the GNU/Linux community. Oh wait ... he does - Divide and conquer: rule 23 in the Pearly Handbook of the Rules of Acquisition. They even stole the book from the Ferengis. Has Microsoft ever actually made anything, other than everyone else miserable?"
Therein Slated refers to statements from Microsoft, such as the following:
Asked about these problems, Arno Edelmann, Microsoft's European business security product manager, told ZDNet UK... "Usually Microsoft doesn't develop products, we buy products..."