Should Microsoft buy Opera?

Last week I reported on rumors that Google might be buying Opera. Those rumors have yet to pan out, but John C. Dvorak has some interesting ideas of his own about Opera's destiny. He says that Microsoft ought to buy Opera and ditch Internet Explorer, and I've got to say, despite being John C. Dvorak, he's got a point. Opera, as he points out, is already very standards-complaint which puts it in a much better position among web developers (who will take a very, very long time to warm back up to even a 100% standards-compliant IE), already runs on all major platforms, and has long had all sorts of great features that IE is struggling to duplicate. He also points out that Microsoft is currently carrying an immense licensing burden with Internet Explorer which would be eliminated if they owned all of their own source code. Microsoft could buy Opera for about $400 million, Dvorak says, and though I think it would be a great move on their part (though perhaps not good for consumers) and I'm sure the idea has been floated around more than one Redmond conference room, I think Microsoft has put too much money and pride into IE7 at this point to make that kind of switch.

[Via Slashdot]