BEA Systems has agreed to buy portal software maker, Plumtree Software, for about $US200 million in cash. The deal finally removes from the market a struggling company analysts long expected to be bought by a larger vendor, and adds to BEA's portfolio a new line of collaboration software.
SSA Global Technologies has lately been on a buying spree of enterprise application vendors that rivals Oracle's, in deal frequency if not size. The once-bankrupt ERP (enterprise resource planning) vendor is amassing an eclectic portfolio that analysts say positions it as an emerging major player in the changing back-office applications market.
Google doesn't operate like a typical tech company, and its stock doesn't conform to Wall Street traditions. Analysts and investment columnists churn out hundreds of articles each week arguing fiercely about whether the company is overvalued or undervalued. Consequently, Google's Thursday filing to issue and sell 14 million shares of its stock set off a flood of speculation. Google's shares ended the day down 2 percent, at US$279.99.
Biometric security systems have one particularly critical vulnerability: How do you replace your finger if a hacker figures out how to duplicate it? An IBM research team working on that problem says it's recently cracked a major problem in the area of "cancelable biometrics."
As vendors jockey for position in the crowded midmarket enterprise applications field, their customers are reaping the benefits in rapid product enhancements. Six ERP (enterprise resource planning) and CRM (customer relationship management) software makers are currently in the midst of major software releases, bringing deeper integration options and added customization features to their applications.
SSA Global Technologies said Monday it has purchased HR (human resources) management applications maker Boniva Software. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Platform Computing wants to make the foundation on which enterprise computing grids are built. At the LinuxWorld show in San Francisco on Monday, the company began discussing a new platform it's developing to offer customers a centralised management system for disparate applications running across an enterprise grid.
Big Blue is getting hip. Just a few months after adopting a corporate blogging policy, IBM is latching onto another hot tech trend, podcasting. On Friday the company posted the first podcast in a new series aimed at sharing its researchers' views about the evolution of technology in various fields.
As vendors jockey for position in the crowded midmarket enterprise applications field, their customers reap the benefits in rapid product enhancements. A half-dozen ERP (enterprise resource planning) and CRM (customer relationship management) software makers are in the midst of major software releases right now, bringing deeper integration options and added customization features to their applications.
IBM is looking to broaden the reach of its WebSphere Portal. A recent upgrade made the 4-year-old software available for the first time on IBM's zSeries mainframe and iSeries midmarket servers, a move IBM hopes will spur customer interest in deploying portal software on platforms for which it has previously not been widely available.
SSA Global Technologies will acquire CRM (customer relationship management) software maker Epiphany in an all-cash deal the companies valued at US$329 million. The acquisition will add another set of applications to SSA Global's growing portfolio of distressed ERP (enterprise resource planning) technologies.
BMC Software reported a loss, but raised forecasts for the rest of the year on Tuesday as it released financial results from its most recent quarter, during which the company cut more than 10 percent of its staff.
IBM said Monday it will acquire customer data integration software maker DWL to strengthen IBM's information management middleware portfolio. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
WebEx Communications said Monday it has agreed to buy collaboration software developer Intranets.com for US$45 million in cash. The deal allows WebEx to take out a rival that had aggressively chased the smaller end of WebEx's core market, Web conferencing services.
Mercury Interactive recently released an updated version of its Business Process Testing QA (quality assurance) tool, adding new user-acceptance features to the software and expanding its integration with other Mercury testing tools.