Scoble thinks an acquisition can change MS' image (which basically means changing its culture). He has it backwards:

Oh, and all it would take to completely remake Microsoft’s image? One acquisition. I hear we have $60 billion in the bank. I don’t want all of it. Just a small percentage. In fact, it’ll cost far less than it cost us to settle with Real to get in this game.

MS is huge, which means that nearly any acquisition will be of a smaller entity. Smaller entities simply don't have the power to change a larger corporate culture. One of three things happens:

• The staff of the acquired entity leaves, since things are "too different" for them
• The staff of the acquired entity "gives up", becoming more like the acquirer
• The smaller entity goes quiet, hoping to stay "under the radar" of corporate - thus maintaining a semblance of their old culture

Unless the two entities are roughly the same size - in that case, you get what amounts to civil war for an unpredictable period of time, as each side tries to "win". I've seen that one personally, and watched it in customers. It's not pretty, and it doesn't help anyone.

Odds are, MS wouldn't have that, because a merger of near equals is hard to imagine for them. Any smaller entity they get will just be swallowed whole, with the corporate culture enforced over it. Chance of image/culture change for MS in all this? About nil.