Mergers and acquisitions

10 February 2006

As the balance sheets of Oracle and PeopleSoft testify, hostile takeovers can be an expensive option.

In the year since Oracle launched a bid for its rival, the two have spent a combined total of $130 million - and this is before any deal goes through. In contrast, IBM (whose last hostile bid was for Lotus a decade ago) has taken a less antagonistic approach to its recent acquisitions. The agreement to acquire privately held content integration software vendor, Venetica, is yet another example of IBM buying companies with which it already has well-established relationships - and then pulling their functionality into its DB2 database family. Previously, in June 2004, IBM snapped up analytic software maker Alphablox; a year earlier it bought Aptrix, the content management software company.

IBM had already optimised its DB2 database to work with Venetica's VeniceBridge software - a tool that integrates unstructured data, such as images, scanned documents and video, from a variety of applications. But this friendly acquisition gives IBM the long-term control it wants over the technology.

Venetica's technology line up includes a large number of adapters that link to repositories of other content management providers, including Hummingbird, Interwoven and Documentum. While IBM has said it will continue to support its rivals existing agreements with Venetica, customers of these vendors should "revisit in-place solutions and ensure their stability," says David Yockelson of analysts Meta Group.

IBM is not alone in looking at tackling the increasingly tough challenge of dealing with mission-critical, unstructured data that resides outside of 'alphanumeric' databases.

Storage software maker Veritas had that idea in mind with its acquisition of UK-based email archiving vendor, KVault Software for £126 million in cash. KVS claims to have sold 7.5 million user licences to customers such as legal firm Clifford Chance, British Gas and Sony UK. And analyst firm Gartner says the deal should strengthen both companies.

Meanwhile, other software makers are seeing the value in adding consulting services to their portfolios. Security software company Symantec has bolstered its services side with the acquisition of two consulting firms: UK-based Liric Associates and US firm @Stake for undisclosed amounts. Liric specialises in securing highly complex global networks and includes the Ministry of Defence among its clients. Consultancy firm @Stake was founded by a group of 'grey-hat' hackers who eschewed damaging corporate networks, instead selling their expertise to clients. @Stake also makes software that detects possible security holes in applications.

Acquirer	Activity	HQ	Target	Activity	HQ	Price
Affiliated Computer Svcs	IT outsourcing svcs	US	BlueStar Solutions	Applications mgmt svcs	US	$73m
Avocent	Connectivity s/w	US	Sonic Mobility	Mobile device mgmt s/w	Canada	$8m
Ciber	Systems integration	US	Novasoft	SAP consultancy	Germany	E66.3
Cisco Systems	Network products	US	NetSolve	Remote network &IT mgmt svcs	US	n/a
Cisco Systems	Network products	US	P-Cube	IP service control products	US	$200m
Concerto Software	Contact centre s/w	US	Rockwell FirstPoint Contact	Contact centre systems	US	n/a
Datawatch Technologies	Report &data transfer s/w	US	Mergence Technologies	Content management s/w	US	n/a
Fast Search &Transfer	Internet search &filter s/w	Norway	NextPage Publishing	Internet publishing s/w	US	$15m
Frontbridge Technologies	Message mgmt/security s/w	US	MessageRite	Message archiving s/w	US	n/a
IBM	Systems, s/w &services	US	Venetica	Content integration s/w	US	n/a
Inovis International	Retail mgmt s/w	US	QRS	Retail mgmt s/w	US	n/a
Lucent Technologies	Networking equipment	US	Telica	VoIP communications s/w	US	n/a
Mailkey	Messaging security s/w	US	MilsonGray	Security s/w distributor	UK	n/a
MapInfo	Mapping s/w	US	Southbank Systems	Infrastructure mgmt s/w	UK	£11.7m
Motorola	Electronic equipment	US	Force Computers	Embedded computer systems	US	n/a
Platinum Equity	IT investment group	US	CompuCom Systems	Managed services	US	$128m
Safenet	Security s/w	US	Datakey	Access &identity mgmt s/w	US	$10.2m
Smarte Solutions	Piracy management s/w	US	Vincera Software	User activity management s/w	US	n/a
Symantec	Security s/w &svcs	US	LIRIC Associates	Security assessment svcs	UK	n/a
Symantec	Security s/w &svcs	US	@stake	Security assessment svcs	US	n/a
Talisma	Multi-channel CRM s/w	US	eAssist	Customer services s/w	US	n/a
Thomson NETg	E-learning s/w	US	KnowledgeNet	E-learning s/w	US	n/a
Veritas Software	Data storage s/w	US	KVault Software	Email archiving s/w	US	$225m

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