Oracle buys operations planning vendor Interlace
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Oracle continues to snap up smaller software companies even while it battles to acquire middleware vendor BEA. On Wednesday Oracle said it had agreed to buy Interlace Systems, which makes operations planning software, for an undisclosed price.
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(InfoWorld) - PM (performance management) vendors appear to be universal in their delight at the news that Oracle will buy Hyperion for $3.3 billion. Their pleasure comes mainly from believing that enterprise-level companies do not want to buy a PM solution from an application or database vendor, preferring instead to purchase mission-critical applications like PM from an independent company with domain expertise and a unique understanding of the space. "A Goldman Sachs survey said that over 65 percent of CIOs prefer to purchase their BI and PM applications from an independent vendor," said Michelle Mollot, vice president of market strategy at Cognos. First and foremost, Oracle will have to convince customers that the Hyperion application will not be optimized for the Oracle database environment and rather that it will be optimized for applications that are important to their company, especially because most large companies have a heterogeneous database and application environment that requires a high level of open and ERP-independent software. The last thing a customer wants is performance management to be an accessory to a database or an application, adds Piet Loubser, senior vice president and director of market intelligence at Business Objects. There appears to be universal agreement from Hyperion competitors that performance management must live transversely across all systems in a heterogeneous environment. "You cant afford to have any bias to other applications that might exist in an infrastructure," said Loubser. Trevor Walker, vice president of marketing at Cartesis, a financial consolidation vendor, said that in the foreseeable future, there will be a lack of clarity on applications from Oracle and where they sit on the application roadmap. "It opens up a lot of opportunities," he said. Craig Schiff, president of BPM partners, a vendor-neutral consulting firm that helps companies launch BPM initiatives, says the acquisition will be a significant challenge for Oracle. "No transactional vendor has been able to sell PM applications. Nobody buys SAPs PM apps," Schiff said. Â The only value Oracle may offer to its customers is integration with its underlying data structure. But Schiff says Hyperion itself is still struggling with integration issues between its own applications, such as financial management, planning, and BI tools. Schiff may know a thing or two about Hyperion as he was the second hire at the company back in the 1980s. While Oracle is spending R&D dollars on integration with ERP, most large companies see the major benefit from single-solution providers in the fact that all of their research and development dollars are focused on PM. "Because PM is a strategic front-office solution with high visibility, it is not an area you compromise on," said Schiff. Not all analysts agree, however. Despite the delight expressed by vendors spoken to for this report, Josh Greenberg, principal at Enterprise Applications Consulting has a different point of view: "Competitors should be worried." According to Greenberg, Hyperion lets Oracle have a conversation with the financial management of a company, the C-level executives. Hyperion plus a big ERP suite can be potentially a lucrative and competitive combination if it can make sense in the context of what Oracle already has. "The trick is integration and assimilation," said Greenberg. Schiff also sees another side to the acquisition, saying it could be a preemptive move before Microsoft unveils Performance Point Server, its PM solution. Schiff says that Microsoft is going to be a big player in the performance space and that IBM may enter the fray as well, picking up Cognos next It is the conclusion of all analysts and vendors in this space that performance management as a separate niche has become extremely mission-critical ever since Sarbanes-Oxley. Up until Sarbanes, the systems for financial management were not effective, and the budget process was too loose, many say.Â  PM is the discipline companies need to apply to reign in risk, notes Cognos' Mollot. It has by default become the new battleground for the hearts and minds of enterprise customers, and that may explain why Oracle made its move. "Application vendors have been able to automate the transaction system phase and now PM becomes the next competitive advantage," said Mollot.
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NEW YORK, Dec 13  - Following are key facts about Oracle, which is the number two global software company behind Microsoft, and PeopleSoft, a business software firm that agreed Monday to be bought after an 18-month battle.
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DECEMBER 13, 2004 (IDG NEWS SERVICE) - Oracle Corp. has signed a definitive agreement to acquire PeopleSoft Inc. for $26.50 per share, or about $10.3 billion, the companies said today, ending an acrimonious
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PeopleSoft Inc. on Monday agreed  to a sweetened $10.3 billion buyout by rival software maker  Oracle Corp., relenting after a 18-month takeover saga that  included the ouster of PeopleSoft's chief executive.
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(InfoWorld) - Oracle has agreed to acquire business intelligence software vendor Hyperion SolutionsÂ for $3.3 billion in cash, it said Thursday. Oracle said it will combine Hyperion's software with its own business intelligence and analytics tools to offer customers a broad range of performance management capabilities, including planning, budgeting and operational analytics. The deal, the latest big purchase by Oracle following its acquisitions of applications vendorsÂ PeopleSoft,Â Siebel Systems,Â and others, will expand Oracle's portfolio of database, applications and middleware products with a set of business intelligence products. These are used by companies to collect and analyze information about their businesses. It will continueÂ Oracle's strategyÂ of growing its revenue and customer base through big acquisitions. But it will also present the challenge of integrating yet another large company into a business that is still absorbing the products and employees of PeopleSoft and other acquisitions. The companies hope to close the acquisition by April, subject to customary closing conditions. Oracle has agreed to pay $52 per share for Hyperion, or about $3.3 billion, a premium of 21 percent over Hyperion's closing share price Wednesday. Part of Oracle's motivation for the deal appears to be to poach customers from its chief applications rival SAP: Many SAP customers use Hyperion software, and the acquisition will bring them closer to Oracle, said Oracle President Charles Phillips in a statement. Hyperion has 12,000 customers using its software, and about 2,500 employees spread over 20 countries, according to information on its Web site. It reported revenue of $765.2 million for the fiscal year to June 30, 2006. Earlier this year Oracle was rumored to have been in acquisition talks with Hyperion rival Business Objects, of Paris. In the past, Oracle executives have discussed improving the business intelligence capabilities in its Oracle database, and buying Hyperion could potentially give the company a selling point over database rival IBM. Hyperion is among IBM's business intelligence partners. But Oracle is also close partners with BI market leader Business Objects, of Paris, and is developing new products that integrate IBM's data warehousing software with Business Objects' products, sources familiar with those plans said this week. It is also a close partner of open-source business intelligence vendor Pentaho Corp. The acquisition will be at least the 27th deal Oracle has announced since the start of 2005.
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PeopleSoft Inc. agreed to be bought by Oracle Corp. for $10.3 billion, giving up an 18-month battle that pitted PeopleSoft against its shareholders, drove away customers and led to the ouster of its chief executive.
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Oracle said Thursday that it had acquired performance management software provider Hyperion in a transaction valued at $3.3 billion. The transaction will close next month, the company said in a statement.
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Hewlett-Packard Co. plans to buy data center automation software vendor Opsware Inc. for about US$1.6 billion.
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Grabs network intel and analytics software Business software provider Oracle has acquired Dublin-based Netsure Telecom.â¦
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Oracle has agreed to buy BEA Systems for about $8.5 billion, or $19.375 per share, the companies announced.
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InfoWorld - Pure-play vendors of SOA governance solutions have been dropping like flies: Infravio was bought by webMethods, and Systinet by Mercury Interactive (which was then swallowed by HP). Yet SOA Software, one of the few remaining independents, continues to bulk up.
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Syniverse Technologies in Tampa signed a purchase agreement to acquire EDS Interoperator Services North America for approximately $57 million payable in cash.
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Oracle has signed an agreement to acquire PeopleSoft for about $10.3 billion, the companies said this morning.
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DECEMBER 15, 2004  - For the first time since closing a deal to purchase rival PeopleSoft Inc. for $13.3 billion, Oracle Corp.
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PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Computer and printer company Hewlett-Packard Co. said Monday it will buy data center automation software company Opsware Inc. for about $1.6 billion.
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The Oracle Corporation announced early yesterday that it would acquire PeopleSoft for $10.3 billion, ending a bitter takeover fight that had lasted more than 18 months.