Oracle Buys BEA

In an event not as surprising as this morning's buyout announcement, but still noteworthy, Oracle has purchased BEA Systems. The middleware maker was snapped up for the sum of $8.5 billion, the second offer Oracle put forward. "BEA had long been considered a prime takeover target in an industry that has been consolidating for several years, but BEA executives had repeatedly dismissed Oracle's overtures, saying the company could perform better independently. Mr. Icahn began buying up BEA shares last summer, and today owns 13 percent of the company. The deal makes Oracle the undisputed leader in the market for middleware, business software that gets its name from its role as a layer of programming code that resides between a company's database system and the payroll, human resources and inventory systems that use the same data."

Comments

Re:Srsly

[cioxx]

It's that thing that sits between topware and bottomware.

It's a very important ware. You might say it's essential for enterprises.

Re:BEA Employee Comment

[tgd]

Step 1: Don't post as AC

Re:BEA Employee Comment

[eln]

I think it's pretty safe to say at this point that if you work for a company that has anything to do with middleware, database software, or pretty much any other enterprise software, you'll eventually end up working for Oracle or being laid off by Oracle.

Next Headlines

[Deanalator]

Any bets on the next few headlines today?

I'm going for

Sun buys Oracle
Google buys Sun
Google buys Microsoft

Hmm

[Quiet_Desperation]

No Bea Arthur jokes. The world has truly moved on. *sigh* I'm old. :-(

Re:Oracle is a bigger evil than Microsoft.

[Kalriath]

The person who modded this troll has clearly never used Oracle. Believe me, if there's a source of evil it's Oracle.

Re:Oracle is a bigger evil than Microsoft.

[marafa]

ora-0600: that does not compute!