LOTUS EMBRACES IBM BID

Lotus Development Corp. finally accepteda sweetened, $3.5 billion buyout offer from IBMlate Sunday, turning what would be the software industry's largest hostile takeover into its largest acquisition. "We don't care who pays our salary," one Lotus programmer told the Associated Press. "We just want more people using our software." IBM launched the hostile buyout of Boston-based Lotus last week, then negotiated slightly better terms, offering $3.52 billion, or $64 a share. TIME Boston bureau chief Sam Allis says the deal's biggest surprise lay in IBM's decision to retain Lotus chief executive Jim Manzi. "Everybody figured that he had to go -- that you cannot have a strong personality representing the old company," Allis says. But he says IBM chief Louis Gerstner recognized the move was necessary to maintain the allegiance of key brains at Lotus -- espcially Ray Ozzie, the creator of the lucrative Lotus Notes program that mayhelp IBM challenge software behemoth Microsoft.