Meanwhile IBM has spent its new found freedom since its rift with Microsoft looking for a good home for its OS/2 OEM business. Microsoft used to handle this business and IBM hopes to have a deal signed with a new partner by December, claims Computerworld. So far negotiations have involved Lotus Development Corp, Borland International Inc and Micrografx Inc, but now IBM is reportedly looking at partners without a large applications business – Digital Research Inc is one possibility as it already has an established OEM business with its DR-DOS operating system. IBM really has to find another party to handle this business as personal computer manufacturers are going to be wary about taking OS/2 on board if they think that the PS/2 engineering group will get access to technological secrets. Furthermore, any whiff of misuse of such secrets could land IBM in serious anti-trust difficulties as its lawyers know.
