Quote - I was just thinking, how much of Poser's current woes is do in part to the fact it's always being bought out, but never by anyone major so it never has a chance to have a stable management?

That's probably a good point.
But, it wouldn't necessarily be a good idea either. Autodesk recently bought Mudbox and is intending on integrating it into either Maya or 3dsmax, or both, as a module in the program.
I think there will still be a standalone version available, but if they didn't want to do that, they wouldn't have to.
Can you imagine the outcry here if Autodesk were to buy Poser and simply absorb it into max? And if people had to buy max for $3,500 to be able to get at Poser?
Could do wonders for D|S "sales" though. ;-)