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Re: Microsoft and 3COM in the press over PalmPilot
- To: pilotmgr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, bigboss@xxxxxxxxx
- Subject: Re: Microsoft and 3COM in the press over PalmPilot
- From: Brian Boerner - WorkGroup Server System Software <Brian.Boerner@East>
- Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1998 11:19:03 -0400 (EDT)
- Reply-to: Brian Boerner - WorkGroup Server System Software <Brian.Boerner@East>
- Sender: owner-pilotmgr@moshpit
Here is the article.
B.
> Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1998 09:05:55 -0600 (MDT)
> From: Travis Tabbal <bigboss@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: pilotmgr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: Microsoft and 3COM in the press over PalmPilot
> MIME-Version: 1.0
>
> Microcontroler Linux.. :)
>
> http://ryeham.ee.ryerson.ca/uClinux/
>
> On Tue, 20 Oct 1998, Peter Laws wrote:
>
> > On Tue, 20 Oct 1998, Joe Pfeiffer wrote:
> >
> > ->I never thought I'd ever see a reason why I'd want to try out the
> > ->PalmPilot port of Linux. MS shutting down Palm would have done it.
> >
> > I'd heard rumors of such a beast ... URL?
> >
> > --
> > Peter Laws N5UWY | Systems Management and Radar Technology Team
> > plaws@xxxxxxxxxxxxx | National Severe Storms Lab, Norman, Okla
> >
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> >
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[Business Technology]
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[Bell Atlantic Large Business Services All@once Solutions]
October 19, 1998
Push to Buy Palm Shows Microsoft's Aggression Is
Consistent
By JOHN MARKOFF
AN FRANCISCO -- In a recent move that indicated he
has no intention of backing away from his company's
aggressive business tactics, Microsoft Corp.'s chairman,
Bill Gates, has proposed acquiring the software business
behind 3Com Corp.'s popular Palm Pilot hand-held
computer, according to people who have been briefed on
the discussions.
The offer, made in an August meeting with 3Com's
chairman, Eric Benhamou, was not accepted by 3Com
executives, those people say.
But certainly, Gates is said to
have dangled an alluring
kingmaker's deal: If 3Com were
willing to sell off its software
business, a market favorite
compared with Microsoft's
Windows CE operating system,
Gates would make the company's
remaining Palm Computing
hardware business, "the Compaq
Computer of the hand-held market."
Officials of both companies declined to confirm or deny
word of the meeting at Microsoft's Redmond, Wash.,
headquarters, at which the two executives discussed a
variety of strategic possibilities between the two
companies, according to several people privy to the
discussions.
Though the proposal was unsuccessful, the approach
provides graphic insight into Microsoft's business
tactics. As in its abortive 1995 deal to acquire the
financial software maker Intuit, which was rejected not
by Intuit but by the Justice Department, Microsoft is
increasingly looking to buy its way into markets where
its own products are not competitive enough to unseat
established brands.
And the Palm Pilot offer would appear to indicate that
Microsoft has not scaled back its ambitions in the face
of the Justice Department's antitrust suit. The
antitrust suit, initiated last October, originally
focused on Microsoft's linking of its Internet Explorer
World Wide Web browser with the industry-dominant
Windows 95 operating system. But more recently, the
Justice Department has begun to examine a wide range of
the company's business practices.
Negotiations to control development and production of
the software that powers the most popular hand-held
computer, the Palm Pilot, are significant, analysts
said, because hand-held devices, from note-taking aids
to cellular telephones, are one part of the market where
Microsoft does not appear to be quickly gaining ground.
The market is seen as growing more quickly than the
computer industry over all.
"Maybe Bill Gates was trying to get rid of a
competitor," said Andrew Seybold, a computer and
communications analyst and publisher of his own
newsletter, based in Boulder Creek, Calif. "I don't
think the Windows CE products have slowed them down at
all."
While Microsoft officials did
not directly dispute word of
the overture to 3Com, they
rebutted suggestions that
they had lost confidence in
the Windows CE software.
"Any statement suggesting that Microsoft would license
or buy the Palm software in lieu of Windows CE is flatly
false," said Greg Shaw, a Microsoft spokesman.
"3Com is a great partner and we have frequent
discussions with them," he added. "But it would be
inappropriate to comment on those discussions."
A spokeswoman for 3Com simply said the company would not
comment on any of the discussions the company had held
with Microsoft.
Though the two companies have had a broad set of
partnerships in other areas of computing, they have been
bitter enemies in the market for hand-held computers.
Earlier this year, 3Com filed suit in Germany after
Microsoft introduced a clone of the Palm Pilot, which it
called the Palm PC. Microsoft backed down, renaming its
hand-held unit the Palm-sized PC.
The Palm Computing business of 3Com has shipped more
than 1.5 million copies of its hand-held device, making
it the dominant player in the market for so-called
personal digital assistants after earlier efforts like
Apple Computer Inc.'s Newton failed to gain broad
acceptance.
By comparison, only about 750,000 Windows CE-based
hand-held systems have been shipped, according to Rob
Enderle, an analyst at Giga Information Group in Santa
Clara, Calif.
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