Microsoft Bids for Kidaro
 Joe Wilcox
News Brief. Microsoft has got yet another acquisition on its agenda: Virtulizaton provider Kidaro. |
There seems no end to Microsoft's buying spree. Among the recent acquisitions:
- U-Prove technologies and patents from Credentica; last week
- Danger; last month
- Fast Search & Transfer; January
- Multimap; December
- WebFives, December
This is just a shortlist and doesn't include the hostile, nearly $45 billion offer for Yahoo.
Kidaro is a potentially good acquisition, although I see its intended destination as being the tail wagging the dog. Microsoft plans to combine Kidaro technologies with the Vista Desktop Optimization Pack. The idea: Reduce deployment complexity, application incompatibilities and driver problems.
The approach is OK, but not ideal. Way I see it, Microsoft needs to solve compatibility and complexity problems at the source: the operating system; not the deployment tools. Long before Vista shipped, I encouraged Microsoft to build a truly revolutionary, new operating system and use virtualization as a means of providing backward compatibility.
Apple used such an approach with Mac OS X and without the benefits of virtualization technology. If Apple could provide Mac OS 9.x emulation as part of OS X in 2001, surely Microsoft could do even more today using its robust desktop virtualization technologies.
Microsoft still has another chance, with whatever Windows Vista's successor turns out to be.
By the way, if Microsoft spends billions on research and development, why is it buying so many companies? Or is acquisition Microsoft's new-millennium form of R&D? How about you answer the question in the comments.
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Comments (5)
Despair
Posted by Marco | March 12, 2008 2:21 PM
One cannot help but wonder what Microsoft is up to now. Mr Ballmer says that Microsoft is a growing company and learning from it's mistakes, well all companies are continually growing and learning from their mistakes, except most companies don't try to run the entire market, create poor software and shove it down the throats of their OEM community and their customers, not once but several times (case in point Vista, ME, Virtual PC, etc. etc.) charge outlandish prices for their software, and buy every company is site that won't cooperate with them. And by the way tell other persons that they are going to f**ing bury their company. It's time Mr Ballmer and Microsoft did exactly what they are claiming they are doing, GROW UP!!!!
Posted by Robert Wilson | March 12, 2008 3:00 PM
Microsoft Research is a good vehicle for doing basic research. But there is no entrepreneurial spirit at MR. They are satisfied with pushing the edges of what is possible and perhaps applying for some patents.
MR is too small a part of the giant conglomerate to provide the fire in the belly needed to select a product and make that necessary leap to market.
Microsoft is going to have to rely on companies that have proven products on the street when it needs something new.
Posted by roger | March 12, 2008 7:44 PM
To me microsoft research is a PR stunt much like IBM making a Top 500 super computer.
ie. there's no point or money value other than people saying "oh wow have you seen this new blue gene /l !" or "wow have you heard about the singularity concept os!"
true research from any company won't be known about either forever as it just quietly goes into a launching product, or when it's ready to be sold.
Posted by pfft | March 13, 2008 12:07 AM
Large software developers buying smaller developers and/or their competition is not anything new. The problem is that the consumer is the one to loose a good product. Just read the history books, some of our best software has vanished because of buy outs.
Posted by Bobzilla | March 13, 2008 11:43 AM