Oracle
Although Siebel as an acquisition target was not included in Forrester Research’s analysis last month, it does make sense in the wake of Oracle’s other pushes in the CRM space. In the press release, Larry Ellison brags about the 4000 customers and 3.4 million users of Siebel Systems – Does it surprise anyone that it seems he may really have been after the customers and users, and not the technology?
Oracle has hired Omar Tazi to join the firm to become Oracle’s chief open-source evangelist.
In addition to 32-bit Windows and 32-bit Solaris, Oracle 9.2.0.7 is now available for AIX5L, 64-bit Windows, and 64-bit Solaris.
In a move that’s sure to spark interest, Sun and Oracle have partnered up to sell “Database Packs”, essentially pre-configured Sun servers including a licensed and working Oracle database install. They are being targeted to the SMB and mid-range space.
When Oracle took over Peoplesoft earlier this year, there was much doom and gloom in PropleSoft’s home town of Pleasanton, California because Peoplesoft employed 3000 people out of the total population of around 60000. It turns out that the end result has not been all bad for Pleasanton, other high-tech companies are moving in, taking advantage of the highly skilled workforce that Oracle laid off in its quest for acquisition-related efficiency and the overall impact on the community of the merger has been mild at worst.
In a major move, Oracle has released a vastly enhanced version of OCFS to the open-source community as a significant new entrant in the fully open-sourced cluster file system arena. To our delight, they’ve actually chosen the GPL as the release license!
Judith Hurwitz raises a red flag about Oracle’s new acquisition strategy. It appears Larry Ellison himself has now clearly articulated a plan that involves buying “companies with a narrow profit margin that have attractive maintenance revenue.” Ms. Hurwitz astutely points out that this type of strategy, coupled with neglecting cash cows, is exactly how Computer Associates faded to irrelevance at the same time that they saddled themselves with several thousand software products to maintain.
As the Oracle/SAP battle wages on, analysts eagerly anticipate each company’s next strategic move. For SAP, Forrester is predicting an acquisition of DemandTec, which would “allow SAP to offer a more comprehensive merchandise solution.” On the Oracle front, Forrester predicts Oracle will acquire Khimetrics “to gain traction in grocery and general merchandise,” as well as Zilliant “to provide non-retail price optimization.”
An interesting review of Oracle 10g for Mac OS X. Pros include much improved management over previous versions and a proven scalability. On the con side, optimal performance remains achievable solely in the hands of a highly skilled DBA. Additionally, the installer needs a lot of manual intervention and the Linux version is significantly ahead of other releases.
Oracle bought the technology and key personnel of Context Media earlier this month, in order to integrate Wnterprise Document Management (ECM) with its own software, officials said Tuesday. The acquisition closed July 15 2005, and officials did not release financial details.
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