Microsoft Watch from Mary Jo Foley notes Feeding the Voracious Microsoft Beast. “Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer may love Microsoft’s partners. But that doesn’t mean he has any trepidation about continuing to chip away at their markets.”
Microsoft has always loved their partners: they’re crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
It’s pretty well-known that announcing a “strategic partnership” with Microsoft means, if you’re lucky, the company will get swallowed whole and you might walk away with cash or, if you’re less lucky, Microsoft will suck the blood, sweat and tears out of the company and leave a cold dead husk. With maybe a shot at an intellectual property infringement suit and a billion-dollar out of court settlement. And maybe not.