Sources: major layoffs at Oracle, more on way
Oracle made major cuts in its global workforce on Friday and more are expected to come, say multiple sources and news reports.
Oracle made major cuts in its global workforce on Friday and more are expected to come, say multiple sources and news reports.
Oracle has upgraded the WebLogic application server that it gained in its BEA Systems acquisition, adding integration with Oracle's Fusion middleware platform.
Oracle has presented a comprehensive roadmap for its recently acquired BEA Systems middleware technologies. Among its proposed moves are making BEA's application server Oracle's strategic Java container and pledging continued support for BEA customers.
Oracle's seemingly endless buying spree may have alienated some customers, but two Australina firms, Hawker de Havilland and Australian Vintage, envisage an Oracle-owned BEA as beneficial in terms of vendor management and product support.
Market share and technology, a sometimes unbeatable combination, is the raison d'etre behind Oracle's acquisition of BEA, say several industry analysts. What Oracle wanted was access to the high-quality, large installed customer base that BEA owned. The high-end customers who use middleware for the most demanding applications are owned by either BEA or IBM, so this acquisition inches Oracle closer to IBM's scale, says Yefim Natis, a Gartner vice president. If the acquisition is approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, it will still put Oracle in second place behind IBM as the leading application infrastructure vendor.
Oracle has agreed to buy BEA Systems for about US$8.5 billion, or $19.375 per share, the companies announced.
BEA's board of directors turned down an initial offer from Oracle of $17 per BEA share in October, saying it "significantly undervalues BEA." Oracle in turn dismissed the BEA board's counteroffer of $21 per share as "impossibly high."
BEA Systems's board of directors has named an acquisition price to competitor and suitor Oracle: US$21 (NZ$27.60) a share, US$4 more than Oracle's initial offer.
Oracle's offer to purchase BEA Systems for US$6.7 billion (NZ$9 billion would be the company's 10th acquisition in 2007. Here's a look at each purchase and what it means for Oracle, one of the industry's dominant applications vendor.
When a company the size of Oracle buys a company the size of BEA, it's natural to wonder what will happen to the product line of the company being acquired. In this case, however, there's less reason for speculation, because Oracle's recent history tells us everything an IT manager needs to know about how — assuming its US$6.7 billion bid goes through — this will all playout.
It’s all on again with Oracle bidding for BEA while SAP is buying Business Objects. The international IT marketplace continues to consolidate around the core group of ICT giants.
BEA Systems has released a trio of products in a suite geared for Web 2.0.
With the increasing use of Web 2.0 systems such as blogs, wikis and online social networks, pressure on corporate ICT and top management to allow similar tools and environments within the office will increase, says Sean Boiling, who manages BEA’s systems engineers in Australia and New Zealand.
BEA Systems has entered the event-driven architecture market with a product geared for SOA in Java environments.
Enhanced software development capabilities and system availability are key focuses in an improved version of BEA Systems’ WebLogic Server application server.
You could hear Rob Levy’s teeth chattering all the way from Bangalore. The CTO of BEA Systems must be scared out of his wits. How else to explain the mishmash of half-truths and misleading facts he told the IDG News Service during a tour of BEA’s India-based R&D facility recently?