http://www.dailytech.com/Report+Cyan...ticle36659.htm
http://www.windowscentral.com/micros...nd-cyanogenmod

Cyanogen has thousands of volunteers helping guarantee the mid to long term future of a likely a billion + smartphones and tablets out there.

So what happens post purchase if it happens ?

Um, considering Microsoft just bought a stake in CM, it's a little odd that you're linking to such old articles.

http://gizmodo.com/cyanogen-wants-to...oso-1682656573

I posted what I saw as interesting stuff.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-DGB-40241

They, in fact have a minority interest but interestingly other investors are staying hidden.
I just hope enough real open source volunteers regroup into something staying open source when they head up well the propriety route.

That Amazon Fire phone is interesting, in that, if you single code for both Fire OS and Android your app logically is likely to be using cleaner open source Android.

Where does it say they're not continuing with open source development on CM? Publicly they're saying they want to "take" Android away from Google, so they can make it MORE open. Rhetoric, perhaps.

The Microsoft investment is probably more tactical, to weaken Google, rather than expecting to make a ROI.

Well, the Kindle Fire and Fire Phone do that.

The apps that run on a Fire are likely fully standalone independent of any Google API.

I notice, you didn't answer my question.

The question you have to ask is, aligned to Microsoft, do those volunteers still want to give their free contributions ?

Microsofts historical contribution to the open source community is as close to zero as you can get.

Historically maybe. But certainly not now. MS have changed in a fairly big way in that regard.

There is a world of difference betyween Cyanogen inc developing (FOR FREE) the firmware for a commercial operation like One Plus and an official maintainer (or an unofficial port) building a ROM for a device like the SGS4. Any dev who is unhappy with Cyanogen inc is quite free to go to Liquid Smooth or Omni or PA. Many do. However the strength of Cyanogen inc is the large developer community around CyanogenMod. Piss the devs off and that strength is gone. I am not sure if Microsoft getting involved would be a problem per say, it is not like Cyanogen inc are getting into bed with the devil that lives in Cupertino.

Many quite obviously will, but whether any of them get to have an above zero presence Cyagenmod is open to debate.