Oracle boss Larry Ellison, once the world's richest man, reckoned the database world was due for consolidation, and decided to consolidate it by buying the available rivals. Having spent $18 billion taking over Siebel and PeopleSoft (with JD Edwards thrown in), he's now ready to start gobbling up open source companies. According to Business Week Online: "Oracle is in talks to buy at least three open source software companies in deals that could be valued at more than $600 million."
The firms "in Oracle's crosshairs" are JBoss, Zend and Sleepycat Software, says BWO, and insiders expect more to come:
One source close to the talks says these deals may be just the beginning. "Larry and [Oracle Co-President and CFO] Safra Catz have a clear plan to control the entire open source [software] stack," the person says.
Since open source suppliers rarely make much if any money, they should be easy pickings for a company that clears almost $3 billion a year.
And no one is likey to stop Oracle because it has two larger rivals. It still has to compete with IBM, which has a range of proprietary databases called DB2 (Database 2), and Microsoft, which sells SQL Server.
However, the move has risks for Oracle. First, it has to learn how to make money from large support contracts instead of its usual large upfront payments for software. Second, it is collecting an increasing array of software that could be hard to integrate. Previously, Oracle has sold on the basis that it supplies an integrated system.
