Business News for Technology Leaders Oracle/PeopleSoft Drama ...
105730
Oracle has won a round in its battle to take over rival PeopleSoft, as a Federal Court judge ruled that the acquisition does not violate antitrust regulations.
332355
PeopleSoft Inc. fired Chief Executive Officer Craig Conway, raising the likelihood the business- software maker will give up its 16-month fight against Oracle Corp.
368060
The Story: What?s in a name? Back in the days of the Gingrich revolution, the nastiest label you could pin on a politician was ?liberal.? And now that open source has become an essential technology, the quickest way to get a rise out of an open source executive (and to get flamed on dozens of blogs) is to say his or her company is ?commercial.?[ Slideshow: 2007's top underreported tech stories ]                                                    No matter what you call them, open source companies have been steadily integrating parts of the hated commercial software subscription model into their business. First it was support, and now it is software access. Say it ain?t so, Linus.MySQL, for example, will charge users of its enterprise edition to use the code, not just for support as has been the traditional open source business model. ?We are looking for ways to extend our offerings in a way that can be monetized,? bluntly says Kaj Arno, the company?s VP for community.Chander Kant, founder of the open source storage software company Zmanda, is likewise frank about the need to drive revenue. Speaking of the open source community as a whole, he says, ?We are not a charity. We need to monetize.?Recognizing that charging to use open source software flies in the face of the original open source premise of freely sharable code open to everyone, Arno is quick to note that the paid version of Workbench has code and features not found in the free version ? and that the free version ?is not crippled.? Arno calls the move an experiment, and acknowledges that MySQL needs to move carefully to avoid upsetting the often quick-tempered open source community.Is this a trend? Red Monk analyst Stephen O?Grady says it is: ?Ultimately when you look at a high-profile firm like MySQL embracing it, it?s difficult to conclude anything else.?InfoWorld blogger (and IBM employee) Savio Rodrigues notes another example. In a recent blog post, he looked at changes to JBoss since it was purchased by Red Hat Software and concluded: ?The Fedora/JBoss subscription is just like the software subscription business model that commercial software vendors have been using for decades.?Does that mean a company that adopts the usage-based pricing model isn?t really open-source? That?s an interesting point, since as Zmanda?s Kant acknowledges, ?the litmus test of open source is control of the code.? Open source software delivered through appliances keeps the access ? and thus control ? away from users, he notes. But code binaries distributed as software remain open to their users ? for now, at least.The Bottom Line: Have MySQL and Red Hat run away from the principles of open source? Who cares. The real point is that the open source business model is evolving away from the ?free? model and toward an alternative development approach for commercial software. If you adopted open source due to its cost, you may not save as much as you thought. If you adopted open source for the access to source code or the community-supported development approach that is supposed to result in better software, it?s not yet clear if the greater commercialization will enhance those aspects or drive away the true believers and make open source no different than the old-fashioned commercial offerings.Complete list of 2007 underreported stories: 1.? Java is becoming the new Cobol 2.? Sun Microsystems is back in the game 3.? Hackers take aim at Mac OS X 4.? There are some threats you can worry less about 5.? Companies may have found a way around H-1B visa limits 6.? Open source?s new commercial strategy 7.? End-to-end Ethernet finally arrives 8.? Blade servers arrive for the masses 9.? BI is dead; long live BI 10. Balance of power shifts to software buyers
575165
Lack of faith never looked so good. As regular readers of Faces In The News are aware, earlier this month the board of PeopleSoft (nasdaq: PSFT - news - people ) ousted Chief Executive Craig Conway.
364056
PeopleSoft (Profile, Products, Articles) Inc. won&#39;t discuss a sale to Oracle (Profile, Products, Articles) Corp. for a price of $24 per share, the company&#39;s board of directors
346216
PLEASANTON, Calif. --(Business Wire)-- Nov. 20, 2004 -- PeopleSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq:PSFT) today sent a letter to Lawrence Ellison, Chief Executive Officer and Jeffrey Henley, Chairman of Oracle Corporation (Nasdaq: ORCL).
145082
In Oct 1 story headlined &quot;PeopleSoft Ousts CEO Amid Oracle Battle,&quot; please read in paragraph 16 ... originally offering $16 a share ... instead of ... originally offering $19.50 a share ... By Michael Kahn and Martha Graybow.
212139
OCTOBER 18, 2004  - Just two weeks after PeopleSoft Inc. ousted former CEO Craig Conway, the business applications vendor said that another top executive -- Ram Gupta, who had been executive
551403
September 23, 2004 - PeopleSoft this week became the latest vendor converted by IBM&#39;s WebSphere gospel. The enterprise software giant announced from its Connect 2004 user conference that it has entered a
478964
roundup Plus: Oracle extends deadline on PeopleSoft bid...MLB sells game clips for 99 cents...TiVo hires marketing chief...Jail time for California swappers?
681890
While all eyes are focused on PeopleSoft's (Nasdaq: PSFT) firing of Craig Conway, the ground may be shifting under other enterprise-software vendors. The recently announced PeopleSoft-IBM partnership will spell bad news for SAP (NYSE: SAP), the Yankee Group predicts.
711924
Ongoing battle between rival software makers enters new stage. Board has vowed to continue resistance. By Michael Liedtke. SAN FRANCISCO -- More than 60 percent of PeopleSoft Inc.
272186
Can you feel the love? Oracle (nasdaq: ORCL - news - people ) Chief Executive Larry Ellison said again yesterday that that he intends to prevail in his takeover of PeopleSoft (nasdaq: PSFT - news - people
667343
In NEW YORK story headlined "PeopleSoft ousts CEO amid  battle with Oracle," please read in paragraph 5, "Oracle  launched its surprise takeover bid in June 2003" ... instead of  "PeopleSoft launched .. )
170713
PeopleSoft&#39;s board ousted Craig Conway as chief executive last week after learning why he misled Wall Street analysts about the impact on his company&#39;s business of Oracle&#39;s hostile takeover bid.
405708
It&#39;s no secret that Oracle (Quote, Chart) has been considering a dip in the enterprise content management well, especially after companies like Microsoft (Quote, Chart), IBM (Quote, Chart) and EMC (Quote, Chart) made such a splash in the sector over the
22888
Oracle&#39;s (nasdaq: ORCL - news - people ) $10.3 billion blockbuster acquisition of PeopleSoft (nasdaq: PSFT - news - people ) is already yesterday&#39;s news.