IBM Corp may be preparing to get still closer to Novell Inc as part of its grand strategy to set up a string of alliances to counter the threat from Microsoft Corp and the Advanced Computing Environment consortium: we hear that there was a meeting between Novell Inc chief Ray Noorda – who was all set to sell out to Lotus Development Corp earlier this year – and IBM top brass in Boston a few days ago, and before the meeting, the room was swept for bugs. And a source at IBM told our sister paper Unigram.X that he recognised a tendency inside the company that wants to tie together the alliances already under its belt – with Novell, Wang Laboratories Inc, Lotus – on Notes and cc:Mail – with Apple Computer Inc into a package aimed squarely at Bill Gates and the ACE initiative.
