Yes, as the title says ZeniMax Media bought id Software!. WTF? I really shocked.
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/59265

strange combination
i always wanted an open world rpg in the doom universe
or maybe a hardcore fps in a high fantasy setting
oh wait, that was called shadowrun and it sucked

I read about this and the Mythic/Bioware merger today...
I'm not a happy man. I just can't see the positive side to all this.

So this means that if Zenix media ever comes to gog we will also get the ID catalogue of games as a bonus along with the bethesda games?

doom meets daggerfall

I thought it was called Hexen and did pretty well?

Maybe they will kill Todd Howard and make a better Daggerlivionwind....

Heretic and Heretic 2 (though that's a Raven property, not id) had the whole fantasy setting going too, and more recently there were Wheel of Time and Dark Messiah Might and Magic.
All of which are very playable, though I enjoyed Hexen 2 and Heretic 2 most of all.
As far as the OP goes... Carmack's interview with Kotaku was interesting:
"And working with other companies hasn't been working out as spectacularly as it could. So the idea of actually becoming a publisher and merging Bethesda and ZeniMax on there [is ideal.]"
Perhaps it will work out, but I don't see how an acquisition is that different from "working with other companies", aside from changing the option of "get angry with your distributor and break out the lawyers" to "get angry, get told to suck it up, then quit citing creative differences and leaving your IP behind".
(Edit: Layers --> Lawyers. Either way I guess you still end up screwed)

Rage was switched to EA, actually. Guess they didn't jive well.

Can't say that Bethesda suffered in any way under ZeniMax Media. So with additional funds in the backhand, I'd guess it to be a good thing for ID Software.
Now how much ID and Bethesda can / will work together or can profit from each others experience, remains to be seen.
The Bioware / Mythic merger on the other hand is a lot different. With Mythics Warhammer and upcoming Bioware Star Wars MMO, they both work (at least partially) in the same field. WAR is struggling and I don't see how even a well renown company like Bioware can turn it around.
At least for me, it looks a lot more like getting more experienced guys over to the SW:ToR francise which means
a) WAR is considered dead
b) scares the heck out of me for SW:ToR, considering how royally Mythic drove WAR against the wall
Time will tell.

I'm scared. =(

Hush now, ZeniMax gonna make it all okay.

So....will all the Daedra in any upcoming games be Cyberdemons??

Hmm... Bethesda and Id. A company with good game designers and crappy programmers meets a company with mediocre game designers and very good programmers. I see two ways this combination could end up going.