Actually all this technology thing about branding, etc, does not really concern very essentially or is very very important, if you are a good photographer, you should focused on how to shoot better insteading of thinking of this brand or that brand...like this, this is not a photography forum anymore...
Even if NASA buys Nikon doesn't mean any harm to Canon. However again, even if Nikon is totally better than Canon, doesn't mean much to your own photography, so what if you are using a Nikon or Canon camera? Many pros use Nikon and many other pros choose Canon, but how would judge who is better, as in which pro is better than the other? We would most likely judge by comparing their works. Even though the camera quality plays a certain part in this, but overall how good the photo is, is still determined by the photograph itself which shows how good the photography is.
Of course since this is a rather techinical sub forum about Nikon, it's understandable to have this discussion, but I just pity when we lose our focus on photography due to branding biasness...which is pointless.