Oracle To Acquire Sun Microsystems For ~$7.4 Billion

There were discussions going on about IBM to buy Sun Microsystems. However it didn’t happen. If not IBM, then let ORACLE to do that. Yes, Sun Microsystems and Oracle Corporation announced today they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Oracle will acquire Sun common stock for $9.50 per share in cash. The transaction is valued at approximately $7.4 billion, or $5.6 billion net of Sun's cash and debt.

"The acquisition of Sun transforms the IT industry, combining best-in-class enterprise software and mission-critical computing systems," said Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. "Oracle will be the only company that can engineer an integrated system - applications to disk - where all the pieces fit and work together so customers do not have to do it themselves. Our customers benefit as their systems integration costs go down while system performance, reliability and security go up."

There are substantial long-term strategic customer advantages to Oracle owning two key Sun software assets: Java and Solaris. Java is one of the computer industry's best-known brands and most widely deployed technologies, and it is the most important software Oracle has ever acquired. Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle's fastest growing business, is built on top of Sun's Java language and software. Oracle can now ensure continued innovation and investment in Java technology for the benefit of customers and the Java community.

The Sun Solaris operating system is the leading platform for the Oracle database, Oracle's largest business, and has been for a long time. With the acquisition of Sun, Oracle can optimize the Oracle database for some of the unique, high-end features of Solaris. Oracle is as committed as ever to Linux and other open platforms and will continue to support and enhance our strong industry partnerships.

"Oracle and Sun have been industry pioneers and close partners for more than 20 years," said Sun Chairman Scott McNealy. "This combination is a natural evolution of our relationship and will be an industry-defining event."

"This is a fantastic day for Sun's customers, developers, partners and employees across the globe, joining forces with the global leader in enterprise software to drive innovation and value across every aspect of the technology marketplace," said Jonathan Schwartz, Sun's CEO, "From the Java platform touching nearly every business system on earth, powering billions of consumers on mobile handsets and consumer electronics, to the convergence of storage, networking and computing driven by the Solaris operating system and Sun's SPARC and x64 systems. Together with Oracle, we'll drive the innovation pipeline to create compelling value to our customer base and the marketplace."

"Sun is a pioneer in enterprise computing, and this combination recognizes the innovation and customer success the company has achieved. Our largest customers have been asking us to step up to a broader role to reduce complexity, risk and cost by delivering a highly optimized stack based on standards," said Oracle President Charles Phillips. "This transaction will preserve and enhance investments made by our customers, while we continue to work with our partners to provide customers with choice."

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Oracle to Acquire BEA Systems

Oracle Corporation and BEA Systems announced yesterday that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Oracle will acquire all outstanding shares of BEA for $19.375 per share in cash. The offer is valued at approximately $8.5 billion, or $7.2 billion net of BEA's cash on hand of $1.3 billion. "We expect this deal to be accretive to Oracle's earnings by at least 1-2 cents on a non-GAAP basis in its first full year after closing," said Oracle President and Chief Financial Officer Safra Catz.

"The addition of BEA products and technology will significantly enhance and extend Oracle's Fusion middleware software suite," said Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. "Oracle Fusion middleware has an open "hot-pluggable" architecture that allows customers the option of coupling BEA's WebLogic Java Server to virtually all the components of the Fusion software suite. That's just one example of how customers can choose among Oracle and BEA middleware products, knowing that those products will gracefully interoperate and be supported for years to come."

"Over the past several months our Board of Directors, with the assistance of independent financial and legal advisors, has reviewed various ways to maximize stockholder value, including engaging in discussions with third parties about a possible sale of the company," said Alfred Chuang, BEA's Chairman and CEO. "This transaction is the culmination of that diligent and thoughtful process, and we believe it is in the best interests of our shareholders. I am confident our innovative products, talented employees and worldwide customer base will be key contributors to the success of the combined company over the long term. We look forward to working with Oracle toward a successful completion of the transaction."

"BEA is a pioneer in middleware, and this combination recognizes the innovation and customer success the company has achieved. Our joint customers have consistently suggested this deal for more than three years," said Oracle President Charles Phillips. "This transaction will accelerate the adoption of Java-based middleware technologies and SOA; advance innovation in enterprise applications infrastructure software; extend our strategic relationships with customers and partners; and increase our penetration in key regions like China."

The Board of Directors of BEA Systems has unanimously approved the transaction. It is anticipated to close by mid-2008, subject to BEA stockholder approval, certain regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

Oracle Aquired End-user Experience Management Leader Moniforce

Oracle announced today that it has acquired Moniforce, a leading software vendor for monitoring the availability and performance of any web application. With customers spanning key industries including financial, retail and government, Moniforce's technology is expected to strengthen Oracle's Enterprise Manager Application Performance Management capabilities that allow application administrators to proactively detect and resolve end-user experience and application logic issues.

"The transaction underscores Oracle's strategy of lowering total cost of ownership and delivering higher quality of service for customers running packaged or custom applications in Oracle or non- Oracle environments," said Chuck Rozwat, executive vice president, Oracle Product Development. "The addition of Moniforce significantly broadens the scope of business exceptions addressed by Oracle Enterprise Manager, allowing administrators to proactively monitor and analyze the application experience from a user's standpoint. Such analysis can dramatically improve business outcomes and create compelling cost-saving synergies with end- to-end application performance monitoring and diagnostics encompassing the end-user, application, middleware, database and the underlying infrastructure."

"Moniforce and Oracle believe that real end-user information is essential for improving application usage and business performance, as well as lowering total cost of ownership; a vision that reflects the growing needs of the industry," said Willem-Jan Scholten, CEO Moniforce. "We're proud to become part of the world's largest enterprise software company and look forward to delivering solutions that maximize our customers' return on their application investments by ensuring the highest end-user satisfaction."

Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. More information is available at http://www.oracle.com/Moniforce.

Oracle Buys Strategic Operational Planning Technology Provider Interlace Systems

Oracle announced today that it has agreed to acquire Interlace Systems, a provider of strategic operational planning software. A key part of the enterprise performance management (EPM) segment, Interlace Systems software helps organizations, quickly and collaboratively, combine functional processes to address strategic operational planning needs. Its software uses a change-based data modeling server, connecting operational plans in an integrated model and allowing business planners across functions to rapidly change operational assumptions, reevaluate scenarios, assess business impact and update the plan of record.

The combination of Interlace Systems' technology and Oracle's leading Enterprise Performance Management System is expected to provide a common perspective across financial and strategic operational planning through an integrated business-planning framework. The Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System is a component of Oracle Fusion Middleware, the industry's fastest growing, most standards-compliant, and best-of-breed technology foundation for Service- Oriented Architecture.

"In today's global economy, organizations need a streamlined planning process that links strategic operational plans to the financial plan of record," said Thomas Kurian, Oracle Senior Vice President, Server Technologies. "The combination of Interlace Systems and Oracle will help enable business planners to rapidly evaluate the impact of changes to business assumptions across all plans and benefit from flexibility, speed, integrity, and accuracy, typically not found in traditional spreadsheet-based and function-specific planning solutions."

"Interlace Systems' technology enables rich cross-functional modeling and interactive business impact analysis, addressing a range of strategic operational planning needs for leading global companies," said Anurag Gupta, Interlace Systems co-founder and Vice President of Development. "Joining forces with Oracle will accelerate the integration of our technology into Oracle's industry-leading EPM System and provide customers with a comprehensive solution for integrated business planning."

The transaction is subject to customary conditions and is expected to close in November 2007. Financial details were not disclosed. More information is available at:
http://www.oracle.com/interlacesystems.