Google has certainly tried to enter into the “Enterprise” market for over 10 years. It has never happened. Eric Schmidt (ex CEO of Google) has publicly stated his goal was to get into the Enterprise. Google was the semi-finalist for the bid on Redhat. (28 billion). IBM was actually more aggressive in the final bid Would Google consider a run at IBM to combine. I would give the odds at close to even, given certain assumptions. Right now IBM is in the process of “rightsizing” (getting rid of low margin services businesses and overlapping SW/middleware). IBM is building an Enterprise, cloud go to market strategy which no one else but perhaps Oracle offers. Redhat only compliments that while also allowing margins to be made on their LINUX services. Once IBM cleans themselves up, then there is value to be mined. Remember IBM is a cash cow! Google wants entry into the Enterprise which IBM has in spades. Google wants to grow their cloud, which makes IBM an attractive target as IBM is building a “niche” cloud vs Amazon and Microsoft. All of the low Intel and SW fruit has been taken by Amazon and Microsoft, so to grow cloud means finding something new. Google already pays IBM for a large portion of their IP (P9). Google wanted Redhat. IBM has a pile of IP that can be licensed for at least 15years. IBM owning Redhat doesn’t sweeten the pot yet, as IBM issued 20 billion to finalize the transaction, but IBM is in the process of cleaning that up (no stock buy backs and more trimming of heads). Finally would the govt allow the merger? Google and IBM have almost zero overlap. The govt would be hard pressed to say no.