Did they have power... Ofc they did. Otherwise... Why were they negotiating?

Its not about who had more power. They just couldn't find enough common ground.

Now Satya bagged talent. They don't have tk rewrite the whole codebase due to IP msft has already secured.

I think those talks were real. You don't build something that long and then want to walk away unless huge differences came up. That's what we say.

(edit: rewritten after the comment I responded to added a game changing comment at the top) PR? I mean... That's just not how I would describe what happened.

It was a PR nightmare. They tried to keep the family together. Divorces happen. Satya brought the kids on so they can get a new sandbox going asap.

Don't believe Twitter? Now there...we agree. I'll add... Don't belive hackernews either.

Most of the reporting I saw was pretty good. It just didn't pan out. They reported the board was optimistic. Not that it was a sure thing.

(edit: full comment rewrite due to edit by the commentor which completely changed the context)