ANTenna Blog -- Hardware & Software

Oracle Makes a Play for BEA, What's in it for Midsize Businesses?

Posted by Cora Nucci Friday, Oct 12, 2007, 05:32 PM ET

Oracle made an unsolicited $6.6 billion bid for middleware maker BEA Systems today. Is that good news for small and midsize businesses?

While BEA is grumbling that the offer is low, the company didn't exactly tell Oracle to go scratch. Whether Oracle will prevail, remains to be seen, of course.

"Oracle is pretty persistent – even if Larry [Ellison, CEO] has to take out a mortgage on his yacht, I think they'll do it," Rick Whiting, senior editor at CRN, told me when he popped into my office this afternoon. Whiting spent much of the day covering the hostile takever attempt by Oracle.

What does this mean for smaller businesses? For starters, the move indicates further consolidation of the software market. Fewer vendors means less leverage for midsize buyers. But on the plus size, there's the convenience of one-stop shopping.

The move by Oracle comes just weeks after rival SAP launched its BusinessByDesign application suite for small and midsize businesses.

Hardware & Software

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