bea

Signs of flailing: BEA now a Web 2.0 company?

My post on whether BEA Systems is screwed hasn't even been up for a full day, and the company decided to one-up me with this press release, marking a 180-degree turn from everything they have been pushing for the last two years.

The company had been talking about Aqualogic as an SOA (service-oriented architecture) story, and now it's pitching it as a blog-wiki mashup: "New Web 2.0 service solutions from enterprise infrastructure software firm BEA, along with enterprise social-computing products, are designed to accelerate the next generation of user participation."

BEA is clearly trying to push outside its bread and butter, but the message doesn't make much sense in relation to how the company is positioning the rest of their products.

BEA's statement goes on to suggest that the company could also be powering buzzword-compliant Web 2.0 initiatives: "BEA's enterprise social-computing products are designed to deliver the next wave of knowledge worker productivity--vital for increased business efficiency, growth and innovation."… Read more

Is your company screwed? (A quick analysis of BEA)

MySQL's Zack Urlocker published an article called Sitting Duck, which gives you a great 13-point checklist to figure out if your company is screwed. If you do a quick analysis you can predict a bit of the future and also use hindsight to figure out if the company's strategy went sideways.

In light of all the hub-bub around Oracle trying to acquire BEA let's take a quick pass and see if the company is flailing based on a few of Zack's points.

Is everyone in your market having trouble? No. In fact the application server/middleware/SOA space is growing at an alarming rate. The fact that Oracle wants BEA means that they see more opportunity that can be exploited and that they are more capable of generating dollars than BEA is with that product set. If we agree that BEA is struggling, they seem to believe it's because of their cost structure and not their products. Which leads to... … Read more

BEA's hold-out on price likely to lead to a lower offer

Paul Kedrosky paints a not-so-pretty picture of BEA's future. Now that it has rejected Oracle's offer of $17/share through pocket veto, all the while begging for a higher price, it's almost certainly going to get a lower offer the next time around.

What happens next is rarely pleasant. Absent a change of heart, or a new offer somehow emerging, the initial acquirer will likely come back and make another offer -- this time, however, for less than was originally offered. Why not? After all, the market just told it that it offered too much, so it … Read more

Oracle to buy Interlace Systems

While it cools its heels waiting for a response from BEA Systems, Oracle is moving forward with other acquisitions.

The database and enterprise applications software maker announced Wednesday it plans to snap up Interlace Systems, which develops operational planning software. The deal aims to bolster Oracle's Enterprise Performance Management System by integrating Interlace's software that's designed to help companies re-evaluate scenarios across various functions, change operational assumptions and evaluate the effect on their business.

The deal is expected to close next month, which is in contrast to Oracle's efforts to acquire BEA.

Oracle on Tuesday announced … Read more

BEA playing 'The Price Is Right' with Mephistopheles

BEA Systems yesterday entered the final phase of capitulation to Oracle, throwing out a "but we're worth so much more than $17 per share!" counter to Oracle's offer.

Most acquiring companies would take mercy on the desperate gesture of BEA at this point, but Oracle might very well hold out.

Oracle is the sort of company to drag the companies it woos through a bit of hell and humiliation to make them good and desperate to be acquired at its price. This is very likely what will happen with BEA.

In other words, BEA's plea for more money will probably result in the opposite: an even lower offer a year from now, after BEA's public subjugation to Oracle is complete. Oracle is demanding an answer by this Sunday, but it can afford to wait much longer on the response it wants.

In the meantime, BEA will flounder, just as PeopleSoft did before it.… Read more

SAP passes on BEA, focuses on Business Objects

SAP has no plans to follow Oracle down the megamerger path.

That, apparently, is the sentiment of Henning Kagermann, SAP's chief executive, who played down the prospect that the German enterprise software maker would make a bid for middleware maker BEA Systems, according to a report in the Financial Times.

The lithe Kagermann wants to stay focused on acquisitions to push SAP into new markets, such as its mega billion-dollar acquisition of Business Objects, whereas a bid for BEA would only bulk up its presence in the middleware market. He indicated that SAP archrival Oracle can make its play for BEA, undisturbed. … Read more

The only analysis of the Oracle/BEA acquisition that you'll need to read

... is the one written by Marc Fleury, who is always to the point and has nothing to lose. His post is acerbic, direct, and highly insightful on what Oracle would gain from BEA, and what it would have to shed within BEA to make the most of the acquisition. It's a good read.

What does JBoss gain from it? Potentially a lot, at least in the short term.

So who gains? Well obviously Icahn and co and its 12% stake in BEAS are pocketing the full 30% acquisition premium, which is a cool $200m. Not bad, take the money. The shareholders gain, Oracle gains. Ironically IBM and RedHat will see positive windfall from this move in the short term. Customers that were on the fence with BEA renewals and don't like the idea of Oracle controlling too much of their account are going to be persuaded to move.… Read more

No need for a Fake Marc Fleury

First came Fake Steve Jobs. Next were a host knockoffs, including Fake Steve Ballmer, Fake Bill Gates, Fake Jonathan Schwartz, Fake Scott McNealy and Fake Larry Ellison.

But with the feisty language of Marc Fleury, who retired from JBoss after Red Hat acquired the company he founded and formerly led, there's no need for a fake.

Fleury no longer has an open-source Java server software company to run, but he hasn't disengaged from the industry. Look no further than Fleury's post about Oracle's $6.66 billion offer this week to acquire BEA Systems.

BEA Chief Executive … Read more

Icahn raises stake in BEA Systems

Carl Icahn has thrown another log on the fire he's lit under BEA Systems, raising his stake to 9.88 percent in the enterprise applications software maker.

The billionaire shareholder activist, who last week called for the company's sale and raised his stake to 8.5 percent, went on the offensive again Thursday by adding more BEA shares to his holdings.

Icahn and his related entities now own a total of 38.7 million shares. That's a pretty large match to wave around, as he tries to ignite movement on BEA's board to put a "… Read more

Open Season on open source, part 2

I'm loving doing this podcast series with The Register's Ashlee Vance and MuleSource's Dave Rosenberg. We dubbed it "Open Season," and often with good reason. In this last installment, we talked about a range of open source topics, including:

Patent protection and open source, focusing on Novell's Moonlight project Ubuntu's mini server OS for VMware The 'Calista Flockhart' hypervisor from VMware Net App sues Sun and Fishworks BEA disses open source InfoWorld's Best of Open Source list Developers and salespeople learning how to do open source Good documentation equals dollars Other topics.... … Read more