Re: ESRI was Re: Wall Street may see MS deals as bad news

[Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>]

At 11:50 AM 11/6/98 -0500, Mitch Stone wrote:
 
>The fact that ESRI sells products for other platforms isn't especially 
>germane to the issue, which is whether such partnerships inevitably lead 
>to Microsoft stealing the partner's business. In ESRI's case it hasn't, 
>and for good reason. Obviously, other partners don't fair so well, and 
>for similarly good reasons.
>
>>From a customer's point of view, by the way, this partnership is hardly 
>benign -- unless that customer is a Windows user. More and more, ESRI's 
>magazine and literature emphasizes Windows (especially NT), and of course 
>the products of the Microsoft partnership are Windows only. So while some 
>companies don't get "disappeared" in Microsoft partnerships, some of the 
>others are being Finlandized as we speak.

Most are eventually shafted. Look at SAP! Already well established on UNIX,
they started as a strong proponent of NT and a self-avowed Microsoft partner. 
For awhile, the relationship went well; now, SAP wishes it had never heard
of NT or Microsoft.

--Brett