Steve Rosenbush writes some predictions for 2006, and includes some targets that might suit IBM (and some other big players in the marketplace).

10 Deals the New Year May Bring

Lawson Systems and Oracle
Always-hungry Oracle spent $10.3 billion on 13 acquisitions in 2005. Is it finished? Not likely. It may want to continue the spree with enterprise software maker Lawson, which is well-positioned in the growing market for business-process software. Buyers of Oracle’s software increasingly want to know how to integrate technology into their companies in ways that make the most business sense. If Oracle doesn’t buy Lawson, IBM or SAP might, for the same reason.

Business Objects and IBM
As the software market continues to consolidate, smaller players like business intelligence leader Business Objects might make a good fit for IBM. Even if IBM doesn’t take the bait, Oracle or SAP might.

BEA Systems gets gobbled up?
Here’s another small enterprise-software player that would bring value to a larger company’s offerings. It would be a nice fit with any of the larger software players, including IBM, SAP, and Oracle.

Personally I don’t see IBM considering BEA a purchase target. They have been marginalised in recent years, without a clear strategy, and a portfolio that is severely lacking in some areas. Then again, there might be some technology that BEA owns that would fill a niche in IBM’s broad On Demand strategy, so IBM might buy them for that - I’m not familiar with all of BEA’s offerings to see if there is anything there that would be suitable.

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