If you're a finance guy and someone shows up and offers you stock making your company worth a lot, YOU TAKE IT!

Unfortunately, many of these guys didn't go to class during the failed merger MBA course, where you discover that you expose all your shortcomings and weaknesses during the due diligence period and your former merger partner, now competitor, takes those facts and shreds you to pieces.

It happened to Neon with both IBM and BEA. Both started to buy the company, did the DD, and discovered that the technology was the only thing worth buying. So they bought the technology without buying the company.

Now, both IBM and BEA are "evolving" their software away from Neon (having used their technology as a starting point), and by the time the licensing agreements expire, both with have new "data integration products" competing with Neon at exactly the time Neon will have no budget for new development and will be teetering on bankruptcy.

Sounds like Carly Fiorina, Bill Coleman, and Lou Gerstner all went to a better MBA school (or maybe they just have superior "strategy" skills) than the CEOs of Neon and Compaq.

Viva HP! Viva IBM! Viva BEA! ( I guess you could add Microsoft in there, too. )