What do you mean “a la Satya Nadella and Microsoft”? He didn’t join MSFT through an acquisition. Did you mean Jobs/NeXT/Apple?
The analogy isn’t 1:1 but I think the core of MS and what he was doing in the cloud division might as well had him an outsider. MS was still highly Windows first all others second under Ballmer. Under Nadella he bet the future of the company on cloud and it’s been the right choice. What if they do the same with a changing of the guard — not immediately but eventually?
They have said that RedHat would remain an independent part of IBM as part of their cloud push. Let's take them at their word unless they prove us wrong. Also, if nothing else, this could give RedHat even more money to make ambitious bets -- perhaps we might see Power9 systems running Fedora soon?
In the end I think this is, on the whole, a good thing. Now, does MS buy Canonical?