… it would be like two former hostile groups agreeing to cooperate to develop a fresh water aqueduct, and develop agriculture, to improve trade with other groups over there, and profit from that trade.
This is an alliance not a hostile takeover. From what I read they are starting a third company, and raising capital to fund the growth of that third company. The reason likely to start a third company is to isolate NI and iZotope corporate from the financial risks involved in this startup — specifically the venture firm won’t be able to go after NI or iZotope to recover the debt should this fail. But should it succeed a proportion of the benefit will accrue to these two companies.
The reason you take on debt like this is that you are preparing to grow faster than is possible by merely using the income streams of these two companies alone.
This certainly could be a start toward a merger, but it doesn’t have to be. There is another thread here, talking about Companies that Collaborate, for mutual benefit — and this looks like it could be prime example of those sorts of collaboration.
I’d say that this could make a lot of sense, given the similarity in products between these two companies, and the ways those products could be made to work together, adding value to both. I look forward to seeing the results of this collaboration.