Oracle Finally Gets BEA
Whatever Larry wants, Larry gets...and BEA, Larry Ellison wants you. Actually,
the free-spending Oracle honcho has
wanted
BEA for a while, and this week, he finally got it -- for
almost
$8 billion (or for
$8.5
billion, depending on whose story you read).
The multibillion-dollar price tag, which represents more than $19 per share,
is a nice bump up from the $17 per share that Oracle offered -- and BEA rejected
-- in October. What amazes RCPU, though, isn't so much the money but the notion
that Oracle is bringing yet another vendor into the fold. Dig this paragraph
from the RCPmag.com
story on the acquisition:
"Ellison has already spent more than $25 billion during the past
three years buying a long list of competitors, including PeopleSoft, Siebel
Systems and Hyperion Solutions."
Sheesh! Put the price tags aside for a second, and think about this: How on
earth is Oracle integrating all of those companies -- with all of their technology,
cultures, partner bases and the like -- under its immense and very expensive
umbrella? Integration is going pretty well, at least according to financial
results, which have
been fantastic lately.
But what's the secret? Acquisitions can be pretty rough for everybody involved
-- except the folks at the top and some major shareholders who clean up money-wise.
In the rank and file, they take a lot of work and can cause a lot of clashes.
Yet, here's Oracle, spending like a contestant on the old "Wheel of Fortune,"
picking
out prizes from the corner of the screen, and somehow making it all work.
Color us impressed...and maybe a little frightened.
What's Oracle's secret to integration success? Do you have any tales to share
of working with Oracle? Share them at [email protected].
Incidentally, Oracle wasn't the only big spender this week -- Sun splashed
out a cool billion
for MySQL.
And, if you were wondering about this week's reader feedback, we're saving
it for next week. So, stay tuned, take a look at the latest
entries (but ignore the photo -- it's two years old, and your editor has
hair now), and send your thoughts on anything and everything to [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on 01/17/2008 at 1:21 PM