Some new information about the The acquisition angle...

Perhaps the best way of accomplishing their goals would be with the straightforward strategy of acquisition.IBM could simply buy a manu fatrurer of small computers and intergrate the company and its products into the IBM corporate  monolith (much as IBM later strode into the communications business by buying Rolm corporation and gradually bad the company into the big blue mainstream). The obvious choice would have been apple however,apple was not IBM's type of target,apple had not yet aimed its products at business applications it was still supplying hobbyists not an IBM market. Nor did apple have much of a track record as a company and computer manufacturer of course the same could be said about the company that had begun its life by building small computers,The industry it self was not that old so the companies in the
industry were necessarily young,nevertheless ,apple was a small part up company with no track record and according to  normal business sense,a dubious future moreover,its sole product the apple 11 just was not a very good design. acquiring radio shack was never an alternative,although radio shack and its parent tandy corporation had a proven trak  record of profits computers had little to do with that,at the time computers were a small part of the sales of the mass retailer,in simple terms IBM would have had to buy a restaurant to get a cup coffee. The other makers of small computers were even less attractive.IBM really did not need to own some one's garage optimistically called a microcomputer factory...