oracle

Acquisitions won't solve SOA problems

The SOA (service-oriented architecture) marketplace has been a morass of vendor-speak, focused on selling software stacks instead of addressing the core issue, which is how to develop a cohesive architecture that will scale with your organization.

The more acquisitions, the more product confusion and the less ability for an end-user to figure out if the products serve their needs.

Over at InfoWorld, Dave Linthicum highlights five things that SOA vendors should know. 1. Make sure your product works. 2. Make sure you know what SOA is. 3. Get wise about the approach to SOA. 4. Don't sell yourself as &… Read more

SEC filing details Icahn's matchmaking role in Oracle-BEA deal

As Microsoft makes a buyout play for a reluctant Yahoo, the software giant may want to enlist the help of billionaire investor Carl Icahn.

The shareholder activist apparently played matchmaker extraordinaire in Oracle's $8.5 billion buyout bid for BEA Systems, according to BEA Systems' Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Thursday.

The SEC filing, which provides a behind-the-scenes look at the merger, not only gives a glimpse of Icahn's active matchmaking role between Oracle and BEA, but also the middleware software maker's efforts to find other suitors.

For those who were wondering whether there was ever … Read more

Mike Olson, co-founder of Sleepycat, leaves Oracle

Mike Olson, Sleepycat CEO and co-founder, has left Oracle. Mike quietly left Oracle in mid-January on amicable terms and indicates that he's going to spend the next while looking around the industry to see what problems he can help fix. (Plus I think he's going to ski a bit. :-)

Mike sold Sleepyat, an open-source embedded database company, to Oracle back in February 2006. Much to my aggravation, I've never heard a negative word out of his mouth about his two-year stay with Oracle, either in public or private. Mike is class and gave to his employer … Read more

What Microsoft can learn from Oracle: greed and market share

In the consolidating world of enterprise software, Microsoft has much to learn. Oracle's Larry Ellison understands that proprietary software is a slow-growth business going forward, and positions his buying spree accordingly:

Mr. Ellison has explained his deals in language a third-grader could understand. At an investors' conference in 2006, he declared: "We want to be No. 1 in all the segments. This isn't vanity. The No. 1 software company in every segment makes all the money....We never buy anything where it doesn't put us in the No. 1 position or get us in such a strong No. 2 position that we think we can get to No. 1 very quickly....It's No. 1 or it's over."

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer? Perhaps embarrassed to have ambition anymore after too many bouts with the antitrust authorities, Ballmer explains Yahoo! and other acquisitions in terms of cost-cutting synergies and what-not. Namby pamby "we love customers" stuff. Since he announced his not-so-hostile takeover of Yahoo!, Microsoft's stock has been hit 11 percent.… Read more

Yahoo undecided on Microsoft offer (yawn)

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang said today that the company is considering "a wide range of potential strategic alternatives," but it's hard to see an equitable ending for both shareholders and employees..

I wonder if Microsoft's attempt to acquire Yahoo will instead sink both companies? They are both working to defeat the Google-verse and one could assume that there is logic and synergy in the acquisition. Yet somehow it doesn't quite make sense. If it did, Yahoo would have said yes right away, or at least gone back with a counter.

A better tactic for Microsoft … Read more

Microsoft's strained monogamy

I couldn't help but think of Microsoft and its track record of "partnerships" when I read this quote from Carla Bruni, France President Nicolas Sarkozy's fiancee.

"I am faithful -- to myself! I am bored to death by monogamy."

I don't know about you, but I'd be feeling pretty secure in that impending marriage. :-)

And so it is with Microsoft (and increasingly Oracle). As these behemoths take on more and more of the enterprise software market, there's no easy way for them to truly partner with companies. There will always … Read more

Retraction: Oracle + MySQL = Bad information

One of the problems with relying on sources unaffiliated with a company is that no matter how trustworthy, they can still be wrong. Such is the case with my post on MySQL and Oracle. The information contained in it turns out to be inaccurate as I've just found out. I apologize for my original post, especially to those at Oracle, MySQL, and Sun who may be affected by it. My source was not a member of the current or past MySQL team or board.

This is not the first nor the last example of my gross incompetence.

Oracle offered as much as $850 million for MySQL

A highly credible source has revealed today that Oracle made not one, not two, but at least three separate offers for MySQL. The first was apparently in the range of $300 million. The second? $500 million. The last one was in the range of $850 million.

But Sun got the prize. What happened? It has a lot less to do with cash than it does with character. There's a lesson in this.… Read more

While you were sleeping...Oracle acquires Captovation

Lost in the rubble of Oracle's acquisition of BEA was its much smaller acquisition of Captovation, a middling document capture firm that positions Oracle to compete in the cash-rich imaging market. As CMS Watch reports:

We...believe that Oracle's 2006 acquisition of Stellent was in part driven for their desire for the somewhat neglected Optika technologies, which provide high-end imaging capabilities. The acquisition of Captovation today confirms that, and provides Oracle with a platform...to compete head to head with EMC and IBM / FileNet for major imaging driven deals (still the ECM deals with the largest price tags). … Read more

Advertisement: Hey, BEA people--MuleSource is hiring!

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I need as many sales people and customer support engineers as we can get our hands on.

Apologies for the blatant advertisement. Consider it community service.