It wouldn’t be long until people snapped the pieces into place and the sound of slapped foreheads would reverberate around the globe. Windows, of course, is a closed source operating system. That’s not the news. The tie-in Microsoft wanted to stifle by their takeover of Winternals was this: The level and depth by which the Sony rootkit delved into Microsoft code clearly suggested Microsoft’s complicity in the matter. In other words, the next headline could have suggested that Microsoft was neck deep with Sony/BMG in planting this rootkit. The best way to keep the only person who might be able to prove this to be true was to buy him out.