Ford tops up Pivotal's $253m cash slurp, parks CIO on its board

Ford is pumping a hefty $182.2m into platform-as-a-service spinner Pivotal as part of a key strategic stake. The car company announced the investment in the three-year-old EMC spin-out, adding that its chief information officer, Marcy Klevorn, is also joining Pivotal’s board. Ford is the lead investor in a funding round that …

[Voland's right hand]

Do they use this greenery in production?

This level of informative-less distraction is frightening, if not criminal. Shrubs do not belong on a dashboard.

[allthecoolshortnamesweretaken]

Re: Do they use this greenery in production?

Honda has something like that on the dashboards of their hybrid cars. A 'flower' grows and blooms if you drive in a fuel efficient way (and withers if you don't).

[Starace]

I love this sort of thing

It never goes well though...

- Company invests in/buys out technology supplier. Large bonuses for key management!

- Internal policy starts to mandate the supplier is used for all future work in this area.

- Engineering staff point out technology isn't what they currently use/doesn't work/was already rejected/is inferior to competition/costs more than the competition/has worse license terms etc. etc.

- Arms are twisted.

- Situation turns out to be as bad as or worse than suggested, projects go elsewhere to try to find something workable.

- Investment is quietly written down.

- Key supplier management retire to enjoy the money they made.

I'm not saying this is will happen here but the pattern and experience is familiar. The trick is to be the one taking the cash, not the one trying to salvage something from the fallout.

[Anonymous Coward]

"do for car owners what iTunes did for music fans."

So slow the car down,reduce quality, fuck up your contents and occasionally crash it?