My old employer, Rational Software, has just been bought by IBM.

Color me “not all that surprised,” please. Rational always used to play the fence between MS and IBM. When IBM phased out CMVC and TeamConnection for ClearCase, and there started to be more integrated flows between Rational Rose and VisualAge, I could see there was something coming.

Then, when MS incorporated UML into Visio, and Togethersoft started eating some of Rational’s Rose lunch, it became more clear.

Now, the final word is obvious. Devlin becomes the new division manager, and the rest of the people will be scrambling to justify their existence. Guess I’m kinda glad now they didn’t hire me here, seeing as how it would be nervous-riff-time for anyone who is still working there. Rational has a very intense internal (some would say infernal) corporate environment, and I think they’ll be a good match for those who remember the “old IBM.” But the days of wine and roses are gone. I just hope Rational’s products don’t go the way of Lotus.