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Oracle Buying Micros Systems For $5.3 Billion

Posted by samzenpus on from the the-circle-of-business dept.

An anonymous reader writes Oracle is buying hospitality and retail technology vendor Micros Systems for $5.3 billion, in a deal that will be its largest since the purchase of Sun Microsystems in 2010. "Oracle said the acquisition will extend its offerings by combining Micros' industry-specific applications with its business applications, technologies and cloud portfolio. Oracle expects the deal to immediately add to its adjusted earnings. Its stock climbed 18 cents to $41 before the market opened. Micros' board unanimously approved the transaction, which is expected to close in the second half of the year."

71 comments

  1. Gold Finger by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oracle is like the gold finger, everything they touch turns to gold and dies

    1. Re:Gold Finger by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 2

      This.

      I just have to wonder, honestly, how they're still in business.

      They must have a hardcore, resistant-to-change, corporate user base keeping them afloat. Because frankly I don't know anyone in the industry anymore who likes Oracle or wants to do business with them.

      (Even the hosting companies I deal with replaced MySQL with MariaDB, behind the scenes. No issues with the changeovers, and better performance.)

      Don't misunderstand me: for enterprise-scale users they might have something to offer. But for just about everybody else, they pretended they were going to offer and just dropped the ball. How many times now?

    2. Re:Gold Finger by HeckRuler · · Score: 2

      From an "enterprise-scale" company, which uses Oracle for their timesheet reporting, let me be the first to inform you that Oracle blows goats. The damn thing crashes if you try to type in text and enter number at the same time. We also have an Oracle database for parts which they've wanted to change for years. YEARS. But switching away is hard and costly and so we limp along with the system we have.

      Oracle is where technology goes to die. And those rotting corpses are weighing down corporate America. Oracle has them locked into contracts and has chained those corpses to the corporations where they dangle like nooses, dragging us all down into the pit of obscurity and obsolesces.

      But maybe I'm being too hard on them for making me fill out a timecard twice.

    3. Re:Gold Finger by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I actually like the database itself, some stuff is pretty non-standard and convoluted, but it's a beast. Everything else they make, except Java, sucks. Even the goddam tools to connect to the DB are terrible.

      SQL Developer might have a nice feature set, but damn, the implementation blows, it's slow and buggy. Even the sqlplus command line client sucks.

    4. Re:Gold Finger by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I just have to wonder, honestly, how they're still in business.

      They have arguably the best RDBMS in the business, they have fat stacks of government contracts, and they obviously have an incredibly effective sales team. Seems like they actually have a lot going for them to me, even if they are horrible in every other way. Government customers don't give a shit about software freedom, or any other kind of freedom. Not this government, anyway.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    5. Re:Gold Finger by The+Snowman · · Score: 2

      Oracle is like the gold finger, everything they touch turns to gold and dies

      As an ex-employee of Micros' retail division in Solon, Ohio, I can honestly say they do not need the help here. Micros (Retail) is already rotting from the inside out.

      I do not expect Oracle coming in to save the day. There has already been too much brain drain and customers are already dropping them as a vendor. Big customers. Think $10 million and larger contracts, poof, like a fart in the wind.

      Micros has some really good products, it is the services that kill them. While profitable, they add an exponential amount of work to the delivery and open them up to liabilities. Oracle will likely come in and say "one size (ours) will fit all." And that would probably be the best for everyone.

      --
      24 beers in a case, 24 hours in a day. Coincidence? I think not!
    6. Re:Gold Finger by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How much money could the government (i.e. taxpayers) save by simply replacing Oracle with a free alternative like Postgres? The db administration costs wouldn't go away, but how much do the licenses add up to?

  2. And, of course ... by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm sure this also gets Oracle access to all of that tasty data, which they can monetize, sell, or otherwise mis-handle.

    I also predict a lot of smaller businesses getting completely gouged by their new overlords on their licensing costs. What do you mean I need to buy a Solaris server with a 10 year service plan to get to my existing data?

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    1. Re:And, of course ... by pegr · · Score: 2

      You don't need to buy Micros to get your hands on that data!

      (Hint: Micros has suffered some really bad breaches in the past, basically hanging their customers out to dry.)

    2. Re:And, of course ... by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Hmmmm ... so, are customers safer with an incompetent company, or a malicious and greedy company?

      It's so hard to keep track these days.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    3. Re:And, of course ... by Shortguy881 · · Score: 1

      Micros already gouged their customers with licensing costs. New boss same as the old boss.

      --
      Brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.
    4. Re:And, of course ... by RailGunner · · Score: 1

      NCR / Aloha has been much, much worse.

    5. Re:And, of course ... by gstoddart · · Score: 1

      Compared to Oracle, I'm sure Micros were lightweights when it came to gouging their customers.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    6. Re:And, of course ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Any company dealing with private data should be forced to compensate people for data breaches with some huge money by law. And no stinking EULA / non-contract should override that.

    7. Re:And, of course ... by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      Micros Systems and and Sun Microsystems. If you don't want to get eaten by oracle as it tries to consolidate as people are not longer buying Oracle DB (Too expensive). You better make sure your name isn't like micro systems

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    8. Re:And, of course ... by essbase_nerd · · Score: 1

      If only you were kidding. I think they call it Exa-Gouge, and ORCL sales weasels sell the shit out of it.

      My Oracle Support will be another fun experience for Micros admins.

    9. Re:And, of course ... by Shortguy881 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Having worked directly with both of these companies, micros as a competing point of sale company and oracle as a base infrastructure for a telcom company, I can say both charge roughly the same for hourly support. On one hand, we still own all data that goes through oracle systems while micros owns the data on their point of sales computers. If you switch pos companies, you lose access to all historical data.

      --
      Brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.
    10. Re:And, of course ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now they've been bought by Oracle...both!

    11. Re:And, of course ... by miller701 · · Score: 1

      Our Micros install runs a MS SQL DB so I guess they will be changing that for the next version.

    12. Re:And, of course ... by tibit · · Score: 1

      I'd go farther: if you're a small business, plan on dumping Micros-anything ASAP. If you can reuse the hardware with someone else's software, great, but that's only an added benefit. Micros is now spoiled goods. Everyone and their mother is doing POS these days, I think it's time it became commoditized as an open source project.

      --
      A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
    13. Re:And, of course ... by Shortguy881 · · Score: 1

      Hmm. Maybe that's a new feature. The ones I dealt with were all old models with proprietary hardware and software and fully encrypted databases.

      --
      Brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.
    14. Re:And, of course ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Micros 3700? That's Sybase SQL Anywhere. It's as easy to access as Micros 9700 or Simphony on Microsoft's SQL Server

    15. Re:And, of course ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Let me guess, you have never heard of "PCI compliance" have you?

  3. In other news by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 1

    "Micros Systems customers all switching to alternative providers"

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
    1. Re:In other news by Charliemopps · · Score: 1

      "Micros Systems customers all switching to alternative providers"

      When Oracle bought the company that produces the software packages I support management was of the opinion "Well... how bad can it really be?"
      Now their attitude is "For the love of God find a way to get us out of this contract!"

    2. Re:In other news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hows that switching away from Java or MySQL going? Both are as popular as ever sadly :/

    3. Re:In other news by ogdenk · · Score: 2

      You jest but it's happening.... Subway recently dumped them as a POS supplier and will not support any new Micros installs and are hesitant to support older ones. They moved on to HP and Par. We went with Par for what should be obvious reasons for our locations.

      Personally, I think Windows-based POS systems are a catastrophe waiting to happen. Doesn't matter who the supplier is, the OS vendor remains the same in most cases.

      If Subway ported their POS software to run on top on Linux or BSD I'd be a much happier man and sleep more soundly at night. The Par POS hardware is awesome, various retail chains' choice of OS and lack of sensible security practices is still as much a problem as it was with Micros.

    4. Re:In other news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Java is a general purpose language so it can do anything. Problem is that it's a general purpose language so does everything badly. Perfect match for Oracle.

    5. Re:In other news by SpzToid · · Score: 1

      A *lot* of folks have switched to MariaDB, (and Postgres), quite some time ago already, and they seem very satisfied with their decision. I'm not hearing about any of their regrets either.

      --
      You can't be ahead of the curve, if you're stuck in a loop.
    6. Re:In other news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh that's really worked out really well for us NOT!!! Like Linux MariaDB/MySQL does not work in a mission critical situation. We have far too many catastrophic failures that have resulted in lost data. The OpenSource fanbois convinced management that we would save money/time by moving to Linux/MariaDB. Well we did, unfortunately we now also have gaps in the data record.

    7. Re:In other news by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      You've got to take the opinions of MySQL/MariaDB uses with a huge grain of salt.

      They've already demonstrated very poor database selection skills, now they have to justify their previous mistakes.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    8. Re:In other news by SpzToid · · Score: 1

      You weren't running MySQL on Linux before? It doesn't seem like it, so I think I understand one aspect of your migration issues.

      --
      You can't be ahead of the curve, if you're stuck in a loop.
    9. Re:In other news by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 1

      >They've already demonstrated very poor database selection skills, now they have to justify their previous mistakes.

      Would you like to substantiate that?
      MySQL and MariaDB have worked fine for several years for my POS application. It has always been available.

      If I did it again, I might drop SQL databases altogether. There are better ways. But as an SQL database, it has worked as intended. How would a different SQL database work better for my application. I suspect you don't know, because you don't know my needs or most peoples needs.

      Yet you made a general statement anyway. This makes you generally wrong. Please report to the correctness police for liquidation.

      --
      I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
    10. Re:In other news by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 1

      >We went with Par for what should be obvious reasons for our locations.

      Not obvious to me. What is it about Par that is better?

      --
      I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
    11. Re:In other news by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Whatever your needs, there is a better solution then anything MySQL based.

      It is the adjustable crescent wrench of the database world. Wrong tool for all jobs.

      A modern DB should not require preventive re-indexing.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    12. Re:In other news by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 1

      You appear full of FUD. I've never had to preventatively re-index in my life.

      Name one of the better solutions.
      Amongst the wrong answers would be
        1) Postgresql. Permissions management is a pig compared to MySQL
        2) Oracle. It costs a lot of money
        3) Microsoft Access. My POS runs on Linux.

      --
      I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
  4. Pretty obvious what happened here. by squiggleslash · · Score: 4, Funny

    Let me guess. Larry Ellison got an SMS a few days ago saying

    Good news Dear Leader, I have discovered that for only $5.3B we can buy Micros

    and he thought the message was truncated?

    --
    You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    1. Re:Pretty obvious what happened here. by SpzToid · · Score: 1

      That's just retail therapy for Larry, seeing as how his bid to buy the Los Angeles Clippers along with David Geffen and Oprah Winfrey was sub-par. He lost out to Steve Ballmer's more baller offer, for LA's long-time underdog team.

      --
      You can't be ahead of the curve, if you're stuck in a loop.
  5. Not Microsoft by tepples · · Score: 1

    And here I was hoping Micros would merge with Oft Dynamics.

  6. Cloud by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If someone mentions "cloud" to me in any way related to my job, I will laugh in the person's face while punching him in the stomach. What a fucking joke it is. Cloud = put all your data on a public ftp.

    1. Re:Cloud by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 1

      FTP? Clearly your 'cloud' provider doesn't love you enough to use a proprietary set of protocols.

    2. Re:Cloud by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "If you can't afford a server, get an unserver" /Cloud provider

      Seriously, this is bullshit. Make it stop.

    3. Re:Cloud by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I suppose your non-cloud server provider is a small scale FTP service as well?

      Seeing as the cloud is just a term for potentially distributed, massive scale computing/storage, it seems ridiculous that anyone that claims to know anything about computers would suggest it's any different than hosting small scale server farms.

      However, please continue to weaken your company's position by laughing at the future of scalability and sandboxed environments.

  7. Tip please? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Seems we'll be tipping Larry Ellison every time we check in to a Hilton now.

    1. Re:Tip please? by ColdWetDog · · Score: 2

      Seems we'll be tipping Larry Ellison every time we check in to a Hilton now.

      I think you have this just a little bit backwards.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  8. Strife by tepples · · Score: 1

    Then I hope you don't work for Square Enix or Level-5 or Sony Pictures Animation or for that matter The Weather Channel.

    On the other hand, you can install an extension for Firefox or Chrome that will protect you from the "cloud".

    1. Re:Strife by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Look I found the weaboo!

    2. Re:Strife by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      hur hur you made a nerd funnay

  9. Got the name wrong by doGSOP · · Score: 1

    The press releases keep screwing up the company name. Company name is MICROS - it is an acronym.

    1. Re:Got the name wrong by tbuddy · · Score: 1

      The company's name is MICROS Systems, Inc.. Not that bad a job butchering it really by omitting the Inc.

    2. Re:Got the name wrong by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Isn't it spelled CRAP? Not an acronym, just capitalized for emphasis.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:Got the name wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No you're thinking of their main competitor POS, which is both an acronym and an apt description.

    4. Re:Got the name wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Agreed. There isn't a bigger piece of shit in the restaurant industry than Aloha POS.

  10. Appropriate image by ericloewe · · Score: 1

    Can we get a Ferengi photoshopped onto a Borg Cube image in here? Seems appropriate.

  11. Sun Microsystems and now Micros Systems. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Clearly they're trying to buy Microsoft but keep misclicking.

  12. After dealing with Micros... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    for the chain of restaurants I work for, support can only get better after this acquisition. Oracle was pretty bad the few times I called them. Their employees are actively hostile and despise their customers, but competent people that hate you are better than the incompetent people that just don't give a damn at Micros. I prefer being called a dumbass then eventually after a few weeks of fighting getting help versus the Micros SOP of simply ignoring customers.

    And, their JTECH paging system is even worse. We never successfully sent a single page with the system, but Micros threatened to sue us if we told anyone, even upper management, that the system didn't work. They wanted us to lie to our management. They took us to court and have very good lawyers. We had to pay every penny of the contract despite the fact Micros didn't even deliver all of the hardware that they agreed to in the contract. Again, I expect Oracle to do a better job. Oracle usually only does the bare minimum, but at least they don't underdeliver and then use the courts to steal from you like Micros.

    1. Re: After dealing with Micros... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      " Their employees are actively hostile and despise their customers, but competent people "
      Barring salespeople, ive never ever ever seen a competent anything from oracle.

  13. But ... why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have been wondering all day what Oracle gets out of this. These hotels and stuff aren't going to just spontaneously implement Oracle's enterprise software. It would be a tough sell, especially since MS will do the same thing cheaper with their enterprise software. (SQL Server may be overpriced, but it's cheaper than Oracle.) If Oracle sees some kind of end-to-end solution with all its packages, I don't see hotels rushing to implement it. And Oracle can't just cram it down their throats, or they'll dump the hardware, too, and Oracle will get nothing for its $5.3b investment. MS had a clear strategy for gobbling up Great Plains and other packages. MS knew they could compete on price against Oracle, IBM, and others with SQL Server (which is surprisingly enterprise-y these days), and all they needed was some vertical software to sell people that used SQL Server. But Oracle is buying hardware, and that doesn't directly translate to enterprise software rollouts. So what's the strategy?

    I'm going to microwave my cat. Anyone want a pizza roll?

    1. Re:But ... why? by supremebob · · Score: 2

      Perhaps they want to kill off SAP's Sybase division once and for all.

      I believe that Micros was one of the last big support contracts that Sybase still had. Now that Oracle owns them, you can be pretty guarantee that new version of Micros ReS will have an Oracle backend.

      But, hey, Sybase is a Dead Division Walking already. When was the last time you heard about them getting a NEW Fortune 500 contract?

    2. Re:But ... why? by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Oracles enterprise supply chain management package stinks to heaven and is gaining no traction in the market. Even in a market as underserved/overcharged as SAP's.

      When you are the size of Oracle if you can't compete your way to market share, you buy it. Even if it's not the same market, it's close.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    3. Re:But ... why? by mrscorpio · · Score: 1

      What does Oracle do that is both 1) good or great, and 2) not database? I was a part of an acquisition and worked for Oracle 4 months before jumping ship. What I saw was a wasteland of half-baked integration work on their acquisitions, and abandoned products, often multiple in the same area, and a strong streak of anti-"wasn't acquired or made here" syndrome. I've heard nothing but contempt for Oracle's consultants which is why everyone I dealt with outside my org worked with third party implementation, support, and often hosting. The pay was crap, no bonuses, no raises, no opportunity for promotion or transfer, and my department's director even rejected any training, even the Oracle University stuff. I just don't see why anyone works with or for Oracle in 2014.

    4. Re:But ... why? by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Sailing. That cat/hydrofoil is cool.

      Gonna bolt a foil to a hobie cat. Redneck hydrofoil sailboat.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  14. also in news - my company renamed Micro System by raymorris · · Score: 1

    A few billion for Sun Microsystems, a few billion for Micros System. I just renamed my company Micro System. Hello, Oracle? Anyone there?

  15. It's funny, but it's also sad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I love Oracle-bashing for laughs as much as the next person, however, once the chuckling subsides, we're faced with the stark reality that Oracle continues to decimate good software at every chance they get. Look what they did to Siebel Analytics (Oracle "Business Intelligence" is now an oxymoron of epic proportions - forcing Siebel Analytics into a Weblogic paradigm has turned it into a piece of over-engineered bloatware the likes of which has rarely been seen in Software history) Why more companies are not taking urgent measures to get off the Oracle stack is flabbergasting.
    How's this for an example of Oracle insulting their customers: Here is a quote from the Oracle DataWarehouse Administration Console installation guide for Linux:

    ""
    4.8.3 Deploying the DAC Server on Linux or UNIX
    Oracle does not provide an installer for DAC on Linux or UNIX. To deploy DAC
    Server on Linux or UNIX, you install DAC on a Windows machine, then copy the
    DAC files from the Windows machine to a Linux or UNIX machine, as described in
    this section.
    ""

    Don't believe me? Check out section 4.8.3 in the install guide:
    http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E35287_01/bia.7964/e35271.pdf

    Really?! Oracle can't muster up the resources to make a Linux installer for DAC? Wow.

  16. Microsoft, Oracle, IBM rule enterprise software by Flytrap · · Score: 2

    This article may help you understand why Oracle continues to grow (they just surpassed IBM in revenues from enterprise software sales).

    To summarise it quickly for you:

    • Worldwide software revenue totalled $407.3bn last year
    • Microsoft continues to be the unquestionable enterprise software giant
    • Oracle which narrowly overtook IBM is in second place
    • Oracle's strong showing was thanks to trends such as big data and analytics.
    • The software industry is in the middle of a "multiyear cyclical transition"
    • Cloud is driving the bulk of this change
    • Pure cloud player Salesforce.com is now the tenth largest enterprise software vendor

    Many of the top 10 enterprise software companies are not sexy brands, and most do not even have any consumer products or services. Names that dominate this list include Oracle, IBM, SAP, EMC, CA Technologies and Salesforce.com.

  17. There is a bright side by attemptedgoalie · · Score: 2

    At least Oracle is cheap.

    oh, right.

    Bastards. I am sitting here rebalancing my vmware cluster to pull more cores out of Oracle so we can license less. Will it run slower? Yeah. But will we save six or seven figures a year? Yep.

    --
    My mom says I'm cool.
    1. Re: There is a bright side by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dude, Oracle does not recognize VMWare core capping as license boundary... You need to license Oracle for every core on the server if it is virtualized through VMWare and even if a single, 1 core VM is running Oracle. Only their own Oracle VM for x86 is recognized for license capping.

      I thought you should know.

      PS: if you are doing this just to fool your employer into believing that they would not be needing those additional Oracle licenses and then see them being torn into pieces by Oracle License Management hounds then I must admit - Great Plan!

    2. Re: There is a bright side by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      And may I add..
      Do you want Exadata? Because that's how you end up with Exadata.

  18. Micros misunderstanding by GoNINzo · · Score: 1

    I suspect someone at Oracle heard that Micros sell POS systems, and thought "Hey, I was told our product is a POS!"

    I'm not explaining the dual acronym meanings.

    --
    Gonzo Granzeau
    "Nothing the god of biomechanics wouldn't let you into heaven for.." -Roy Batty
    1. Re:Micros misunderstanding by BarneyRabble · · Score: 1

      My thought about this after the purchase of Micros was "Do you want the combo meal or just the sandwich?" Seeing that Oracle will only take the juiciest parts of them and discard the rest.at fire sale prices. (char broiled, no doubt...)

  19. Oracle were just confused by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They thought Micros Systems was the second part of Sun Microsystems.