MySQL and BEA: Wednesday’s Two Big Acquisitions

Sun Microsystems (JAVA) is buying open source database maker MySQL for $1 Billion. More than 100 million copies of MySQL’s database software have been downloaded and 50,000 copies are downloaded daily. MySQL had raised $39 million from Benchmark, Index, IVP, Intel (INTC), and SAP AG (S), and was in IPO discussions. It’s good to see that MySQL has found a sustainable home inside Sun, because aside from everything else, it's a great cultural fit. MySQL has been a pillar of the Web 2.0 movement.

Oracle (ORCL) is buying BEA Systems (BEAS) for $8.5 billion. As I said earlier, the Enterprise Software lay of the land now has both Oracle and SAP armed with Middleware and Applications. Oracle and IBM (IBM) also have databases, which SAP doesn’t. IBM, on the other hand, doesn’t have Applications, but it has Global Services.

Here are some questions to think about:

Will IBM get into Applications?

Will SAP get into databases?

Will SAP/Oracle get into Services?

Will Sun get into OpenSource Applications?

Comments

[billybob_jcv:]

You don't think Oracle is already into Services? What about Oracle Consulting? Every acquisition has not only added a codebase and development team, but also a professional services team.

2008 Jan 17 08:41 AM

[Dennis Byro...:]

Sramana--SAP doesn't promote it a lot, particularly outside of Germany, but actually SAP does have a database called SAP DB. They bought it (or the rights to it) from Software AG, I think, and made it open source in 2006 or so. The acqusition was basically a customer protection move back around 2000 or so but it gives SAP a jumping off point as solid as Sun's with MySQl if it chose to do so.--Dennis

2008 Jan 17 09:03 AM