[lotsofpulp]

An offer is only as good as the buyer’s trustworthiness. It seems like they trusted Microsoft the most to close quickly and cleanly. The quotes around “firm” for Borland’s offer and description of laborious dealing with Xerox make it seem like the buyers thought $4M more was not worth the headache.

> a “firm” offer from Borland to acquire Forethought for $18 million in cash, with action absolutely guaranteed within the week (never happened), and an immensely complex offer from Xerox (after hours of negotiations) for exclusive sales rights to PowerPoint, for which they would pay something above $18 million. The meeting ended with a summary of the agreed directions to management: “Our real agenda is to get a clean, high offer from Microsoft.”