With the silly season well and truly upon us and hard news thin on the ground, the computer industry is resorting to gossip, and BusinessWeek hears that Apple Computer Inc may be interested in selling at least some of its stake in its Taligent Inc joint venture with IBM Corp to create an object-oriented operating environment. There has long been talk that Hewlett-Packard Co would come on board as a third partner, and Steve Jobs told BusinessWeek that Apple wants to sell at least half its 50% stake in the venture, which its structured around Apple’s Pink development effort. Sun Microsystems Inc has also been offered shares by Apple, the magazine was told. Apple would not comment on the talk while Taligent denies Apple has lost interest in it. Other sources told Computergram that the Taligent environment has always more of an IBM than an Apple focus, and that Apple is more interested in its OpenDoc answer to Microsoft Corp’s Object Linking & Embedding – presenting this as a division of labour.
