Review of 2009 for Software Development: Many Acquisitions and a Funeral
Published January 21st, 2010 Under News, Software Development | 2 Comments
Last year has certainly been busy for the software development tools industry. We have seen many companies merging together and also the funeral of one of the oldest brand in the software development industry. Read more
Another Suitor for Borland?
Published June 11th, 2009 Under News, Software Development | Leave a Comment
According to Reuters, Micro Focus, which agreed in May to buy Borland, said on Monday that Borland had received a preliminary non-binding indication of interest from an unnamed financial buyer. The price offered would be $ 1.20 versus the $ 1 offered by Micro Focus. If the transaction is not approved by the shareholders, Borland would have to Micro Focus $3 million.
Borland entered a nondisclosure agreement with the new suitor and it has granted it access to its accounting books. Among the possible buyer, the name of Embarcadero and Oracle are mentioned. Embarcadero already bought last year the CodeGear division and might be interested for some new tools that will complete its current offer… for cheap. Oracle, who just bought Sun, could seize the occasion to create a more complete offer of software development tools around Java. JDeveloper, the Java IDE from Oracle, was originally build around the JBuilder technology from Borland.
Oracle Buys Sun: What Will Happen Next?
Published April 20th, 2009 Under News, Software Development | Leave a Comment
SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 20, 2009. Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) and Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) announced today they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Oracle will acquire Sun common stock for $9.50 per share in cash. The transaction is valued at approximately $7.4 billion, or $5.6 billion net of Sun’s cash and debt. The price represents a 42 percent premium to Sun’s Friday closing stock price of $6.69. This acquisition came after Sun broke negotiations with IBM, which was offering $9.40 per share.
Sun Press release said “There are substantial long-term strategic customer advantages to Oracle owning two key Sun software assets: Java and Solaris.” I think that this last sentence will reflect the main point of this purchase, as far as software developers are concerned. In his quest for getting a more important share of the software infrastructure of companies, Oracle acquires mainly a programming expertise and operating system that should complement its application and databases solutions. The hardware part should also allow Oracle to offer a complete optimized hardware and software solution to its customers, even if, due to Sun smaller market share, Oracle has to be friendly with its other hardware partners like HP or Dell. Acquiring Sun, Oracle also increase its expertise in the Java middleware area, after the acquisition last year of BEA Systems.
The other fact which is contained in Sun press release sentence, or I should say which is omitted, is MySQL. Sun acquired MySQL in January 2008, as a way to boost its software offer. MySQL has been for a long time an important issue for Oracle, as it was a big competitor in the lower end of the market for databases. With this acquisition, Oracle has the possibility of “quietly” killing the MySQL development process and offer the current MySQL paying customer an opportunity to migrate towards its own database product. I don’t see Oracle maintaining two database product lines, especially if one is mainly “given away” for free. Even if existing Oracle customers may not be tempted by MySQL, this new database was always in consideration for startups. There were also some companies that tried to build upon MySQL the missing tools to bring it close to the power of Oracle products.
We expect a similar fate, silent slow death through lower financial support, for mainly of the other Sun’s technologies: NetBeans, GlassFish, JavaFX or OpenOffice. Oracle always want to get the most of the financial aspect of acquisitions and spending money on open source projects and technology that has low immediate return on investment is not something that it would consider, unless it could be used as a tactical weapon against some of its competitors, like Microsoft or SAP for instance.
Sun Press Release
http://www.sun.com/third-party/global/oracle/index.jsp
Sun is Buying MySQL
Published January 16th, 2008 Under News, Software Development | Leave a Comment
It should be something related to the sales period as the same day that Oracle scoop BEA Systems, Sun Microsystems announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire MySQL AB for approximately $1 billion.
MySQL was forecasted to set an IPO this year, but it seems that with the difficult conditions of the stock market its initial investors have chosen the easy solution to cash their money by letting Sun acquire the company.
For Sun, who recently changed its NASDAQ stock ticker from SUN to JAVA, it is a confirmation that the new strategic direction is in software and services. This move is therefore an important step to transform itself more in a service oriented company. With MySQL, Sun acquires a fast-growing company that has already a dual open source-commercial approach. Its estimated 2007 revenues were around $70 million. It is also a quick and good ticket to enter the database market already occupied by its competitors (Microsoft, Oracle and IBM). We suppose that Sun will not touch a lot to the existing MySQL organization. Being backed by a bigger company will bring an increased credibility and a better sales channel. Sun could also provide additional resources to improve its product so that it will become a more fierce competitor against Oracle.
The acquisition could also help Sun to propose its own alternative to the open source Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP (LAMP) architecture. As it put its Solaris operating system in open source last year, it could propose a Solaris/Apache/MySQL/Java (SAMJ) pack that could be optimized. This could be a real alternative to the Windows ecosystem that is backed by a “old” company, thus allowing medium-size companies to have the impression to make a safer transition than with a pack of dispersed open source projects.
This move also changes the landscape for the other companies operating in the open source database area, like PostgreSQL and Ingres. However it is also a financial validation of the open source commercial model and some companies could end being the target of a bigger fish in the future. I will not be surprised if companies like Red Hat, HP… or Yahoo! will make some acquisitions in the sector in a near future.
Oracle Finally Acquires BEA Systems
Published January 16th, 2008 Under News, Software Development | Leave a Comment
After a small one month battle with an offer at $17 for share last October, Oracle Corporation and BEA Systems announced today they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Oracle will acquire all outstanding shares of BEA for $19.375 per share in cash. The offer is valued at approximately $8.5 billion, or $7.2 billion net of BEA’s cash on hand of $1.3 billion. It seems that the will of certain BEA investors to make a substantial gain and the fact that Oracle proposed a better price allowed finally the deal to be concluded, even if BEA board previously asked for $21. The current stock market situation is different from last October and this could be financially a good deal for BEA shareholders, also because it seems that nobody was ready to pay more than the previous Oracle offer.
What benefits could Oracle achieve with this deal? Technically, it will acquire Web server and transaction monitoring software expertise. Even if Oracle has already its own set of products competing with BEA Systems, its technical reputation is a little bit lower in this area. Combined market share put Oracle in the number one position in the middleware market. However, Oracle will have to play it tactfully to keep the core technical team behind BEA products. Financially, the acquisition could provide additional revenues, a strategy Oracle has followed these past years with PeopleSoft and other targets. In this area, Oracle seems to transform itself in a Computer Associates-like company, more driven by financial interests than technical capabilities.
In the winners side of this situation, we could certainly find IBM and Red Hat’s JBoss, as uncertainty about the future of a product is always a strong topic that buyers will consider when the look for their Web server. Also some companies do not like to have too much of their software infrastructure locked to a single supplier. Losers will be BEA Systems customers, because a change of ownership always rise questions on the future roadmap of the products and the availability of knowledgeable people to provide some support. This is mainly true for BEA’s Tuxedo transaction processing product, an old software that doesn’t seem to fit into Oracle product portfolio.