It's only January, but this idea could well go down as one of the worst of 2006, if you were to take it from the perspective of JBoss. One word says it all: Bluestone.

For those who need further explanation, HP acquired Bluestone Software, another J2EE vendor, in January, 2001, and systematically dismantled it, killing the product and firing most of the Bluestone team in Summer, 2002. The Bluestone acquisition was opposed by some internal forces in HP, mostly in the Computer Systems Group, with the result that HP sales people were compensated for selling the competing BEA WebLogic J2EE app server for much of the time. Of course, the Bluestone group (HP Middleware Division) never got the resources it needed to be successful, and Her Worship, along with the rest of HP management, was focused on the Compaq acquisition. HP actually wanted to acquire BEA, but it had a $20B market cap at the time, which made it too expensive.

Beyond that, HP is a notorious failure as a software vendor. Think King Midas in Reverse. Internally-developed software including SoftBench and eSpeak: killed. Then there's Verifone, acquired for $2.1 BILLION, and basically given away to Gores Technology Group a couple of years later.

Acquisition of JBoss would be just about the worst thing that could happen to JBoss employees and their users. Since there are several Bluestonians on the JBoss staff, they should have the good sense to prevent this proposed disaster from occurring.

Good points, but that doesn't mean that the business will think it's a bad idea.

Sounds like you have some first-hand experience...we'd be happy to publish an editorial from you on this topic.