Here's a merger that was completely unexpected and out of left field. Avocent, makers of KVM and remote access products, is purchasing LANDesks, a desktop management vendor. "The agreement, which is expected to close within 60 to 75 days, provides for total consideration of $416 million, including $200 million in stock, $200 million in cash and $16 million in assumed options. The transaction value may be increased by up to $60 million if LANDesk meets certain financial targets specified in the agreement."

Can the purchase of Fidiela, network monitoring vendor of the product NetVigil, pull Newtork General out if's downward slide? The marriage makes sense when looked at the connection made by Network General, from service orinented views of network and systems infrastructure provided by NetVigil, to the deep and mature packet decodes of the Network General Sniffer.

Does it matter when we and Network Computing say that a vendor has declined to participate in a review, due to 'lack of resources'? Most of the it seems like a copout to me. Just the PC thing to say in a magazine article. We spend a lot of time trying to get vendors into reviews, and when we miss a vendor we hear about it, at least from their sales folk. But does the reason make any difference to anyone?