Om Malik on Microsoft’s recent $300 million acquisition of Acompli and (rumoured) Sunrise:

It is a pretty damning indictment that Microsoft had to spend hundreds of millions on front end apps for its own platform –Microsoft Exchange — and it should send alarm bells ringing. Exchange is something Microsoft understands better than most and it should in theory be able to develop good apps as front end for it. And yet, it has to go seeking help elsewhere.

As usual Om cuts straight to the heart of the issue, software acquisitions do not help in changing a company’s culture. They solve immediate, short term needs but fail to resolve any deep rooted cultural issues.