On Mon, 21 Jan 2002, Jesus Ortega (a.k.a. Nitebirdz) wrote: > > ... or maybe (and I'd like this idea way better than the one where AOL outright > purchases Red Hat), they are simply negotiating a "strategical agreement" where > AOL can "leverage" Red Hat's expertise to develop set-top boxes for American > homes in order to fight Microsoft's expansion into other fields such as online > access (MSN), online content (MSNBC, among others), gaming (the X-box), etc. > Now, that could something to get excited about... although it's anybody's > guess whether it would work or not. > >
Well, merely one hour after I sent this message to the queue CNet News published the following: http://news.com.com/2100-1001-819578.html Like I said, this makes more sense to me. Basically, the whole thing boils down to: o "Sources familiar with the situation emphatically insisted the two companies are not near an acquisition deal, nor have they discussed one." o "Still, even if the two companies are not considering a merger, AOL Time Warner could license Red Hat for use on PCs or other devices for use with its online service." Something like this would still be great news for Red Hat (especially since they have been pushing their toolkit for embedded devices lately) and would still keep the company's independence as we all like it. On the other hand, when it comes to AOL it seems to me that they have already seen the writing in the wall, just like Netscape did several years ago. If Microsoft's monopoly in the desktop market is left untouched (and the latest news we got from the DOJ vs. Microsoft case seem to point in that direction), they'd better figure out a way to steal market share from Windows XP et alii or Microsoft will also end up imposing its own MSN and related applications in that market. Summing up, it seems to me that we are not witnessing an acquisition but rather a "strategical partnership". -- Nitebirdz Mozilla--> http://www.mozilla.org Linux XFS--> http://oss.sgi.com/projects/xfs _______________________________________________ Redhat-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list
