Dan Frommer with a thought exercise: What if Microsoft had bought Blackberry in 2009? That’s a compelling question and its made especially interesting by how tied into enterprise both companies were. However, we have to think that tie in would have been double the incentive to make a huge mistake which both companies largely made on their own: ignoring consumers and feeling like their ‘lock’ on enterprise could never be undone. Neither company saw BYOD coming to the workplace and it’s not hard to imagine they’d have been even more blind to it together.

However, it also raises a very illuminating question now: With Blackberry circling the drain and actively seeking sale, did Microsoft but the wrong struggling, once giant phone company? Or even, what if Microsoft tripled down and bought Blackberry as well?