In an blow to industry leader Microsoft, Lotus and Novell merged last week to form a corporation worth about $1.5 billion dollars. The merger does not affect the Macintosh market as directly as the PC market, because neither Lotus nor Novell has been a major player in the Macintosh market despite several abortive attempts by Lotus. Novell's networking software has yet to win a major following in the Macintosh market as well, due to the preeminence of Apple's own AppleShare software. However, the fate of Microsoft is almost as tightly interwoven with the Macintosh as it is with the PC world and the Lotus/Novell alliance will undoubtedly affect Microsoft's ability to dictate the course of personal computing.

Related articles:
MacWEEK -- 10-Apr-90, Vol. 4, #14, pg. 1
InfoWorld -- 09-Apr-90, Vol. 12, #15, pg. 1
PC WEEK -- 09-Apr-90, Vol. 7, #14, pg. 1