It’s a song that’s been played so many times the record is starting to get worn out.

Big manufacturer buys software company.

Big manufacturer does not understand software business, software company, or software company’s customers.

Big manufacturer makes a bunch of cost reductions based on incorrect assumptions.

Big shot at big corp customer calls peon (like me) at budget time to ask why we spend so much money on this “VMWare”.

Peon explains that "VMWare is very important software which used to be “Best in Class” but has become “Overpriced, second rate, yada yada…” And suggests we switch to Hyper-V.

Big shot asks (a little suspiciously) if we would save money without any negative impact to operations.

Peon says, “Yes.”

Big shot writes big check to Microsoft.

Other big shot at big manufacturer is stuck trying to figure out where all the customers went; not realizing that big manufacturer pissed all over the peons who actually have to use their [now] shitty software.

Big manufacturer decides the acquisition was a failure, learns nothing from it, and sells the shell of the once popular software company for a fraction of what they paid for it.