Remember the sensational flurry a couple of years back when we picked up word that IBM Corp was considering making an agreed offer for Apple Computer Inc? It came to nothing and the two settled for the broadbrush alliance on the PowerPC RISC and the creation of Taligent Inc and Kaleida Inc, but it now seems clear that the idea of the big one still appeals to John Sculley, and according to the Independent on Sunday, Sculley was very much considered as the successor to John Akers, but his terms were that IBM sell the mainframe business and merge with Apple to create a profitable $30,000m a year company, and the courage of the outside directors failed them when they considered what announcement of such a deal might do to the IBM share price.
