They are a provider of proprietary products and software to verify designs of complex integrated circuits.
Two are proprietary products (owned by Chiron and GlaxoSmithKline) and so less attractive.
Boots launched a review on all own-brand and proprietary products.
"Most online companies don't do proprietary products; they do commodity products," said Steve Weinstein, an analyst with Pacific Crest Securities.
An arms race evolved, in which firms developed ever more sophisticated proprietary products, options, swaps, and derivatives.
The firm has around 8,000 customers who pay 1-10% of the amount they would spend on proprietary products.
Asked whether proprietary products, such as Apple's mobile applications, posed a threat to the open internet, he added: "Definitely there is such a problem.
Paul Saffo, a Silicon Valley forecaster, said openness was likely to apply to new products like the OSD, rather than to existing proprietary products.
Proprietary products can create problems because they quickly become obsolete, as anyone who has weathered the transition from VHS tape to DVDs can attest.
Their most proprietary products are all hand-woven in the Philippines, which has the highest level of weaving craft in Asia.
By contrast, he said, much of the R & D spending by Dell's rivals is to develop their home-grown technologies and lock customers into their proprietary products.
