Microsoft in Macromedia buyout rumor
WinInfo | at | by Mike
A rumor is making the rounds this week about a possible buyout of Macromedia by software giant Microsoft. According to the rumor, Microsoft is considering the purchase in order to wrest control of Macromedia's Flash tool, which is generally used to create interactive Web sites or Web-based animations, and is seen as competition to Sun's Java. Rumor doubters point out that Macromedia also creates a bunch of other tools, such as ColdFusion MX, which either compete with Microsoft products, or have little place in Microsoft's lineup. For those who believe Macromedia's products aren't a natural fit at Microsoft, however, consider this. A current security warning from Macromedia says that every Flash player distributed before December 2002 is vulnerable to a buffer overflow exploit that hackers could use to completely take over users' systems. Sounds like a Microsoft product to me!