NEW DELHI: The first word that comes into mind on hearing the name of the database giant Oracle is 'acquisition', and rightly so, 2005 has been a year of acquisitions for Oracle.
We kept a close watch on its moves and got you first hand information about all major acquisitions. Here's a quick recap.
Finally it has Peoplesoft...
After an 18-month long tussle, Oracle finally took over Peoplesoft; the deal was finalized at $10.3 billion.
There was a mixed reaction from the industry. While partners welcomed the news, customers were worried about support and integration.
According to IDC India head Kapil Singh, "Oracle was interested in PeopleSoft since it wants to boost its business applications space. Oracle is traditionally strong in infrastructure and middleware but not very strong in the applications arena."
Read more at:
Oracle targets PeopleSoft board
Judge awaits more Oracle vs PeopleSoft testimony
PeopleSoft rejects Oracle bid, deadline looms
Oracle beats SAP...
Back in early 2005, SAP's offer of $496 billion to acquire retail application vendor Retek, was foiled by its all time competitor
Oracle who closed the deal at $631 million.
According to Joshua Greenbaum, founder of Enterprise Applications Consulting in Berkeley, Calif. "With Oracle, the bulk of its growth is in acquisitions; Oracle pledged in the vertical industry that it would be buying more companies, potentially buying more
customers."
Read more at:
Oracle beats SAP to buy Retek for $631 m
Oracle's Retek purchase completeÂ
SAP raises Retek bid 24%, tops Oracle offer
The Retek Saga: Oracle 1, SAP 0
Cannot ignore Identity Management...
Identity management is an integral part of Oracle's Project Fusion roadmap and the database giant has gone all out in ensuring this by acquiring not one but three companies, which operate in this space, namely Oblix, Thor technologies and OctetString.
According to Charles King, principal analyst with Hayward, Calif.-based Pund-IT Research, "Oblix integration is a validation of Oracle's continued claim that Project Fusion would be a best of compilation of components from each of its acquisitions."
Read more at:
New identity management suite from Oracle
Open source community takes note
Oracle's acquisition of Innobase OY, the developer of InnoDB open source database technology, made quite a few open source database vendors sit up and notice.
According to open source database vendor SleepyCat Software's CEO Michael Olsen, "Any attempt to disrupt a competitor is an acknowledgment that the competitor matters; and I think that acquisition was part of an attempt to disrupt MySQL's business."
Read more at:
Oracle buys open source tech developer Innobase
Oracle sees value in open source: MySQL
Almost through...
Another major deal in the pipeline is acquisition of the customer relationship software maker Siebel. The deal is expected to be through sometime this year.
With the Peoplesoft deal, Oracle got a major share of the CRM market, Siebel's acquisition would take Oracle to the number one position in the CRM segment.
According to Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, "In a single step, Oracle becomes the No. 1 CRM applications company in the world."
Read more at :
Oracle to buy rival Siebel for $5.85 bn
Oracle to buy Siebel for $10.66 per share