An intresting story found in the internet:

"At the Web 2.0 Summit, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer admitted that
Microsoft 'will do
some
buying of companies that are built around open-source
products,'
suggesting that to avoid open-source companies would
'take us out of the
acquisition market quite dramatically.' Ballmer has
apparently come a long way since
dubbing Linux a 'cancer.' The real question, however, is which
open-source
companies make sense within the Microsoft product
portfolio, both
from a technology and philosophy perspective.
Novell? 37Signals? Jive? SugarCRM?
And, equally importantly, which companies
could look their communities in the
eye after selling to Microsoft?"

Its not hard for a $250bn company to buy a $2bn redhat or anyother small free
softwares. But will that make any difference?? I mean they already are under
some licensing scheme (like gpl). And according to it they have to keep the
source open whether it is microsoft or any other company. So the only thing
they can do is maybe they can prevent such comapnies from contributing to
free software. Ridiculous. Correct me if my observation is wrong.