Apple, Microsoft in Talks Over Sale of Macintosh Business Unit

With a sweet $18 billion of cash in the bank, it was just a matter of time until Apple would consider a major acquisition. But who would have thought that Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit would be their object of desire.

In an announcement made this morning, Apple and Microsoft state that they have entered talks about a sale of the Redmond software giant's Macintosh Business Unit -- "MacBU," for short -- to the Cupertino computer maker. Details about the price tag or the payment modalities have not been publicized. It has been confirmed, however, that the talks cover the whole product range of the MacBU, including Microsoft's flagship "Office 2008 for Mac" software suite, as well as Microsoft Messenger, Remote Desktop, and Flip4Mac, a QuickTime plug-in that adds support for Windows Media files.

When asked about the motivation to assimilate the MacBU into the Apple mothership, Apple's CEO, Steve Jobs, said: "We're thrilled that Microsoft is willing to provide us with the opportunity to acquire their MacBU, so that we can finally add the tasteful user interface to Office 2008 -- which many of our valued customers use day to day -- that this great piece of software deserves. What's more, it'll add even more credibility to our efforts of selling to corporate users. Having the iPhone synchronize with Microsoft Exchange was just the beginning. We're really excited about this."

Regarding any potential name changes to MS Office, Phil Schiller, Apple's Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing, pointed out that "many IT deciders in corporations are so accustomed to not consider buying anything but Microsoft products for their productivity software needs that we have quickly abandoned the idea of renaming the software to iWork Studio. Upcoming versions, however, will just have a two-digit year as version indicator to bring this in line with the naming scheme used for all our other exciting product lines, like iLife."

According to Sina Tamaddon, Apple's Vice President of Applications, immediate plans for further development of the Office suite focus on true interoperability with the Windows version: "Our own consumer office package, iWork '08, already supports Open Office XML file formats, while Office 2008 for the Mac does not. This is the first thing we'll fix."

Not surprisingly, Office 2008 received full attention during today's announcement, with nary a word mentioned about the future of Microsoft Messenger, Remote Desktop, and Flip4Mac, but it can be considered a safe bet that these will be rolled into iChat, Screen Sharing, and QuickTime, respectively, to seamlessly integrate compatibility with these technologies while maintaining the look-and-feel that Mac users have come to expect.

Speaking of compatibility, a cross-licensing agreement on key technologies between the two companies will ensure perfect interoperability between the products Apple will acquire in the deal, and the Windows-oriented software and technologies that remain with Microsoft. For Apple, this means that the products acquired will continue working with any future innovations coming from the programmers' dens in Redmond. In return, Apple grants Microsoft full access to its Cocoa frameworks that form the basis for building applications that run natively on Mac OS X.

This could mean that, in one way or another, Cocoa may even find its way into the .NET architecture. However, any hopes of seeing the promise of "Write Once, Run Anywhere" -- which Sun's Java platform has failed to deliver, yet -- being re-suscitated to life at least between Windows and Mac OS X applications, should be considered premature.

Unfortunately, the only comment from Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer during the announcement was a mumbled "developers, developers, developers!" after being asked about the cross-compatibility between the two development platforms.

A a key figure in bringing this deal to fruition is Craig Eisler, General Manager of the MacBU, who said he couldn't be happier: "When I took on the post as the MacBU GM last June, I blogged that 'the icing on the cake - the thing that I love - is the chance to work on Mac products and to get to work with Apple. I have been an Apple fan and Mac user for years'. Now, I not only get to work with Apple, I get to work for them. How cool is that, I mean, uhh, how insanely great is that? Huh?!"

With both companies having just entered the initial stages of the negotiations, further details should not be expected before the fall of 2008.