Microsoft invested in Inprise (formerly Borland). And which technology did it covet the most? Inprise's CORBA technology (the Visigenic Software ORB and COM-CORBA bridge)? Inprise's Pure Java JBuilder 3.0 (curiously, Oracle has licensed JBuilder technology and is shipping it as Oracle JServer)? Or the Inprise Application Server? I don't know, but I'm putting my money on CORBA. I think Microsoft realizes it can't ignore CORBA any more. And neither should you.