IBM has teamed with longtime rival Sun Microsystems to cooperate on server technologies so that Sun's Solaris operating system could run on IBM's servers and eventually on its mainframes. This is an example of a(an)

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This is a nonequity-based vertical complementary alliance because it involves two companies in the same industry (server technologies) cooperating to enhance their products by making their technologies complementary. It is nonequity-based because there was no exchange of ownership or financial stakes involved. It is vertical because it involves two companies in complementary stages of the value chain (Sun's Solaris operating system running on IBM's servers and mainframes).

IBM Has Teamed with Longtime Rival Sun Microsystems to Cooperate