Valleywag
acquisitions
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Oracle, bea
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BEA has told its employees not to blog about the software maker's impending merger with Oracle. For the record, we stand with BEA management on this one. BEA employees, why go through the trouble of blogging when you can just send us tips and let us take care of it for you? [Docu-Drama]
Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry on Oracle's purchase of BEA Systems: "Contacts tell us that Oracle delayed giving yearly raises to its employees for a quarter to fund the acquisition, which indicates seriousness on Oracle's part to have the acquisition done." [Epicenter]
acquisitions
Oracle and Sun attack the stack
Oracle has acquired BEA for $8.5 billion. Sun has acquired MySQL for $1 billion. These events are not coincidence. Oracle, which already makes a database, wants to add BEA's software on top of that database. Sun, which makes application servers and other software which connects to databases, wants to slip MySQL in underneath that layer. It all adds up to what geeks and software salesmen call a "stack," or a complete package of interconnecting programs. More »
11:55 AM on Wed Jan 16 2008
By Owen Thomas
617 views,
6 comments
BEA Systems will share financials and other internal data with shareholder Carl Icahn in an attempt to convince him that BEA is worth more than the $17 per share that Oracle had offered in an unsolicited takeover bid. BEA has not filed a quarterly report with the SEC in over a year because of an investigation into possible backdating of stock options. [WSJ]
stalemate
Oracle waits for BEA's self-esteem to deflate
Analysts believe that Oracle will still buy BEA ... eventually. However, since no "white knights" have stepped forward to make competing offers, the consensus is that the $17 offer Oracle initially made was too high a price. Carl Icahn, who owns 15 percent of BEA, wrote "I view your public declaration of a $21-per-share, 'take it or leave it' price as a management entrenchment tactic, not a negotiating technique" in an open letter to the BEA board. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison also seems to have a take-it-or-leave-it attitude towards BEA, having said nothing since Oracle's initial offer expired last week. "Now, both sides will probably stand back and stare at each other for a while," said one analyst. How unexciting.
acquisitions
Nobody wants BEA
Carl Icahn, the activist investor, is pressing BEA Systems to put Oracle's $17 per share offer to a shareholder vote. Icahn owns 13 percent of the software maker. "BEA is badly miscalculating Oracle's desire ... Oracle doesn't need BEA. At some point, Oracle will buy these guys, but it's completely at Oracle's discretion," says Peter Goldmacher, a Cowen & Co. analyst. Since there hasn't been a competing offer in the three weeks since the initial unsolicited bid, Oracle remains BEA's only suitor. Correction: Bitches not so jealous after all.
BEA Systems responded quickly to Oracle's rebuff of its $21-a-share counteroffer. We "cannot endorse a proposal that ... significantly undervalues BEA," spake BEA's board. BEA's stock price has fallen below Oracle's $17 bid, which suggests investors think a deal is increasingly unlikely. [Mercury News]
Oracle has responded to yesterday's statement from BEA Systems that it was worth $21 per share. Larry Ellison's software empire had previously offered $17 per share in an unsolicited takeover bid. Oracle says $21 is an "impossibly high price" and "nobody would seriously consider paying that." Well, we saw that coming. So predictable, that Ellison. We look forward to more passive-aggressive statements issuing forth in the future. [Mercury News]
BEA Systems wants at least $21 a share from Oracle — or anyone else who wants to buy them. That's a mere $4 per share more than Larry Ellison offered. Don't expect Ellison to just say "OK" to this. That would make him look weak and easily manipulated. And it was probably a bad move, since it essentially set a ceiling for what Ellison might offer — any more, and he'd look like he gave in to BEA's demands. We suspect, though, that the deal will get done at some point soon, once the two companies are done playing grabass. Oh, and Oracle rival SAP? Says they don't want BEA. Bitches just jealous. [Mercury News]
Larry Ellison is not used to getting rejected. After being spurned twice by BEA's board, Oracle is now threatening to withdraw its $17-a-share offer for the software maker on Sunday. The stock, however, is still trading above $17. Translation? Wall Street thinks Ellison is bluffing. [Tech trader Daily]
acquisitions
A cautionary tale for BEA, the software company Larry Ellison is trying to add to his Oracle-housed collection: When Oracle's integration teams sweep through, they obliterate all traces of the prior company. Take, for example, Siebel, the sales-management software company Oracle gobbled up in 2005. Writes a tipster:
How Oracle trashes the companies it buys
A cautionary tale for BEA, the software company Larry Ellison is trying to add to his Oracle-housed collection: When Oracle's integration teams sweep through, they obliterate all traces of the prior company. Take, for example, Siebel, the sales-management software company Oracle gobbled up in 2005. Writes a tipster:
Our company just moved into the old Siebel campus in San Mateo, which has been empty since Oracle relocated the remaining employees. The only thing left of Siebel on the campus is shown in the attached photo.
BEA Systems has rejected an unsolicited Oracle takeover bid. BEA believes they are "worth substantially more to Oracle, to others and, more importantly, to our shareholders." One, two, three, four, I declare a bidding war. [SF Chronicle]
name game
"Boracle."
What do you get when you combine ORCL and BEA?
Using the ticker symbols for Oracle and BEA Systems, a software company Oracle is trying to buy, as Scrabble pieces, venture capitalist Paul Kedrosky manages to spell "corbel," "cabler," and, well, "oracle." But we have a better use for "BEA" and "ORCL" — a new name for the merged companies which summarizes their software's incredible ability to put people to sleep."Boracle."
acquisitions
