| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 5147.1 | | BHAJEE::JAERVINEN | Ora, the Old Rural Amateur | Wed Feb 19 1997 12:46 | 1 |
| Unbelievable.
|
| 5147.2 | | vaxcpu.zko.dec.com::michaud | Jeff Michaud - ObjectBroker | Wed Feb 19 1997 12:47 | 3 |
| Maybe this is why the spinoff/IPO announced 6 months ago
has yet to be; ie. because Digital was in the middle of
negotiations with Microsoft?
|
| 5147.3 | | BHAJEE::JAERVINEN | Ora, the Old Rural Amateur | Wed Feb 19 1997 12:51 | 9 |
| P.S. Times change, but after the 1992 annual stockholders' meeting, the
following was released (re Palmers speech at the meeting):
Palmer highlighted customer focus and Digital's core competencies --
services, software, networking, storage and silicon -- as areas for
continued investment as the company returns to profitable growth.
What's left of those core competencies today?
|
| 5147.4 | | LGP30::FLEISCHER | without vision the people perish (DTN 381-0426 ZKO1-1) | Wed Feb 19 1997 16:20 | 12 |
| re Note 5147.0 by MSBCS::MARCELLO:
Sounds reasonable to me -- there are a number of technologies
in AltaVista Software that could benefit Microsoft. Also, I
think that that would be the quickest, and surest, way for
Digital to make a lot of money off of AltaVista.
AltaVista Software is on a path to (some) independence (from
Digital) and (some) non-Digital ownership -- this would just
take it the rest of the way.
Bob
|
| 5147.5 | | GIDDAY::CAMERON | And there shall come FORTH (Isaiah 11:1) | Wed Feb 19 1997 17:05 | 1 |
| But I'll miss them. ;-)
|
| 5147.6 | my two cents | MAIL2::DERISE | | Thu Feb 20 1997 08:42 | 21 |
| I know that some people at Microsoft, at least in the field, have not
been happy over the whole AltaVista movement. They were miffed,
thinking that Digital was trying to break what ever agreements we had
with them over Internet and especailly Internet mail. One local
Microsoft person even expressed mild hostility when discussing
AltaVista mail. For some reason they saw this as a direct threat to
Exchange. I tried to explain the differences, but I'm not sure he was
listening.
Sure, Microsoft needs a really good search engine to complete the
Normandy Suite. Why reinvent the wheel? Just buy Digital's. Trash
everything else - they don't need anything else.
Frankly, I think it would be a better deal to license the AltaVista
Search engine to Microsoft. At least then we have an annuity in
royalty fees. This could happen whether Digital keeps AltaVista or
spins it off.
On the other hand, with all the competition in the Internet space,
where can AltaVista go from here? Maybe it does make sense to sell it
for top dollar while we can.
|
| 5147.7 | Somebody stick their finger in the dyke! Quick! | STAR::DIPIRRO | | Thu Feb 20 1997 08:53 | 3 |
| So would this mean that Microsoft would have a software development
organization right here in little ol' Littleton, Mass.? Boy, wouldn't
that be a terrible thing, having a Microsoft presence nearby...
|
| 5147.8 | Why buy what you can have for free? | VFOVAX::BRAMBLETT | | Thu Feb 20 1997 10:35 | 7 |
|
I think Bill Gates bought "Digital" a while back without even having
to transfer any $$$. So why would he pay for something he gets for
free anyway? No doubt he is a genius.
|
| 5147.9 | Besides, would *you* want to work with Dave C again? | HELIX::SONTAKKE | | Thu Feb 20 1997 12:27 | 8 |
| RE: .7
"Digital and Microsoft have a gentlemen's agreement not to raid each
other's talent pool"
I don't remember where exactly I read that but I did read it.
- Vikas
|
| 5147.10 | Suurrrrree, I won't go after your best people, I promise | RLTIME::COOK | | Thu Feb 20 1997 12:42 | 9 |
|
> "... Microsoft ... gentlemen's agreement ...
Hmmmmmmmm...
ac
|
| 5147.11 | | BHAJEE::JAERVINEN | Ora, the Old Rural Amateur | Thu Feb 20 1997 16:06 | 7 |
| re .9:
Don't know about an agreement - but I have yet to encounter a case
where we have raided Microsoft's talent pool..
The other way round... some of my best old DEC friends are working for
M$ now,
|
| 5147.12 | no deal | BIGUN::BAKER | at home, he's a tourist | Thu Feb 20 1997 21:00 | 9 |
| This is no agreement,
In Digital's estimation all software is worthless, therefore, by
implication, Microsoft is not raiding any "talent pool", because if
they were really talented they'd be designing hardware.
- John
|
| 5147.13 | | BIGUN::BAKER | at home, he's a tourist | Thu Feb 20 1997 22:21 | 51 |
|
Look, its very easy to get M$ people in the field annoyed at you. That
they get annoyed about Altavista is no surprise.
We once has a M$ salesperson needle us for months, the customer used
all M$ software except Wordperfect for Word processing.
Every week it was "when you gonna turn them over to Word?".
Every week , we'd explain, "they have 2000+ terminals and no budget to turn them into PCs,
so we have to run Wordperfect on the PCs. When you gonna provide Word
for OpenVMS ?"
He was like a broken record.
When your corporate goal is domination of every conceivable software
business segment, little things like reality can be a little annoying to
you.
Our current strategy appears to be to sell off those elements of the
business to others before Microsoft gets there, because they will win
anyway.
i.e
premise: Microsoft Exchange is here
conclusion: abandon own Messaging products
premise: Microsoft Network COM is here,
conclusion: sell off CORBA Objectbroker middleware
premise: Microsoft is about to release Message Queuing software
conclusion: sell off DECmessageQ
premise: Microsoft TP product about to be released
conclusion: draw your own conclusions about the future of ACMS and also
about how committed we will be to the "sell tuxedo" push.
premise: Microsoft Normandy is due
conclusion: will we yield our added internet software value?
We havent really considered what the 64 bit NT push will do. My guess
is it will push a lot more (I guess there isnt really a lot more left)
soft things into a big Microsoft hole.
Fight dammit.
- John
|
| 5147.14 | | SETIMC::OSTMAN | http://setimc.soo.dec.com/ostman.html | Fri Feb 21 1997 01:31 | 6 |
|
Why would MS have to buy AltaVista, didn't DIGITAL and MS cross-license
all software patents and gave each other access to all source code,
or was that only on the OS level?
/Kjell
|
| 5147.15 | There is good presentaion | TKTVFS::NISHIKIGI | | Fri Feb 21 1997 01:59 | 31 |
|
< premise: Microsoft Exchange is here
< conclusion: abandon own Messaging products
premise: Microsoft Exchange is here
conclusion: migrate All-in-1, TeamLinks and Mail Works to M$Exchange
The presentation of the office server at http://messaging.vbo.dec.com/forum97/
america/ppt.htm says such startegic positioning and digital opportunity.
premise: Microsoft Internet Mail of M$IE is here
conclusion: migrate Altavista Mail to M$IE ? Not sure right now!
The presentation of altavista mail at http://messaging.vbo.dec.com/forum97/
america/ppt.htm says it is open Internet Standards based products. And
low cost, reliable, easy to-manage-messegaing solution for the Internet
and Intranet. Scaleable from 1 to 10,000 users. So it sounds great!
I installed the Exchange cliant the day before yesterday but it didn't work
yesterday. Not sure the reason, but I also heard the joke about Exchange on
the PC Week...
Hiromi
|
| 5147.16 | | SAPEC3::TRINH | SAP Technology Center | Fri Feb 21 1997 05:31 | 3 |
| Okay, after all your comments, how serious is the rumor?
Hung
|
| 5147.17 | M$ in Littleton, not! | SCASS1::WILSONM | | Fri Feb 21 1997 11:08 | 3 |
| RE: .7
M$ software development in Littleton? I would guess if AltaVista goes
to M$ those jobs will go to Redmond.
|
| 5147.18 | | XAPPL::DEVRIES | downsized: your footage may vary | Mon Feb 24 1997 12:58 | 6 |
| re: M$ raid on Digital's people
I don't think it's considered a "raid" when the villagers are streaming out
to join you. :-)
-Mark
|