For those who haven’t seen the news, it was just announced this morning: http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/080912/20080912005372.html?.v=1
Our little part of the world just got a little smaller and the folks who brought you DEC are now part of a much larger company.
If I may make some observations, I think this kind of activity, while inevitable, is both good and bad for all involved. Certainly whenever there is consolidation in the market like this, in the short term, customers lose choices. Its common practice for a given customer to go to several vendors when looking for a solution, and whenever the choices get fewer (esp. when #1 buys #2), the customer loses for a period of time. But the beauty of the market is that other, nimbler and smaller vendors now have an opportunity to compete when they may not have before. Instead of having one big (Quest) and one pretty good sized (Netpro) AD vendor to talk to, now customers have one really big AD vendor and a lot of smaller ones. But trust me, the void fills quickly.
Perhaps the toughest part of all of this is the impact to employees. Right now, I suspect there is a lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt within the ranks of both companies around the products that both have in common and that is probably the biggest immediate negative of any aquisition. Since I know many folks in both organizations, I hope that they are all doing well and that things clear up quickly. Its a painful process to go through and the best that can happen is that it happens quickly!
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