The entire future of a company or industry can hinge on one little deal. The $50,000 IBM paid to license Windows was the foundation for Microsoft and the technology industry for the last couple of decades. Apple’s licensing contract with Portal Player to create the iPod was nearly as big — and certainly huge for that company. The sale of 3Par could also be one of those pivotal deals, as huge firms like HP, IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, Dell, VMware, Cisco and EMC position themselves around the new “cloud” opportunity.
