Tech deals
Three new tech deals as big hardware and software companies try t find the missing pieces.
Sun Microsystems built another piece in its open systems software strategy by buying up Swedish firm MySQL. The company makes open system database software used by large corporations. The deal was for $1 billion. Sun is in the server business, not the software business, but it has been proactive in distribution free or low-cost Linux-based software to its corporate customers. That puts sun ever more in competition with software companies like Microsoft.
Microsoft, meanwhile, announced it would buy Norway's Fast Search & Transfer. The deal for the company is for $1.2 billion, Fast Search & Transfer makes software for enterprise wide-data search, and it will be integrated with Microsoft's SharePoint business software sweet, as Microsoft competes more and more with Sap and Oracle.
Meanwhile, Oracle has finally completed its deal to buy BEA Systems in a $9.5 billion deal. BEA had spurned Oracle's earlier advances, but Oracle came back with an offer BEA board members couldn't refuse. The original bid, in October, was for $6.7 billion.
BEA is a leader of a specific software category called middleware, software that connects front ends (including the Web) with back-ends, like SQL databases. As the Wall Street Journal ("Oracle Strikes Deal to Buy BEA Systems for $8.5 Billion", 1 /16/08) reported: "BEA of San Jose, Calif., is one of the few independent, midsize software companies left in Silicon Valley as the technology industry consolidates."
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