Reply to post: Re: Patents

Official: IBM to gobble Red Hat for $34bn – yes, the enterprise Linux biz

Glen Turner 666

Re: Patents

IBM already had access to Red Hat's patents, including for patent defence purposes. Look up "open innovation network".

This acquisition is about: (1) IBM needing growth, or at least a plausible scenario for growth. (2) Red Hat wanting an easy expansion of its sales channels, again for growth. (3) Red Hat stockholders being given an offer they can't refuse.

This acquisition is not about: cultural change at IBM. Which is why the acquisition will 'fail'. The bottom line is that engineering matters at the moment (see: Google, Amazon), and IBM sacked their engineering culture across the past two decades. To be successful IBM need to get that culture back, and acquiring Red Hat gives IBM the opportunity to create a product-building, client-service culture within IBM. Except that IBM aren't taking the opportunity, so there's a large risk the reverse will happen -- the acquisition will destroy Red Hat's engineering- and service-oriented culture.

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