Offering regional and national programs, CIO (and CSO) events bring together some of the most respected names and thought leaders in information technology and security. Presented by CIOs and other senior level executives, these invitation-only programs offer timely topics and strong networking. Learn More »
Public Teleconferences
Join CIO Executive Council members and participate in the following live teleconferences:
* Planning for Succession:
Models for IT Leadership Development, June 23
* Change Leadership at General Growth Properties: A
Pathways Leadership Development Seminar, June 25
* Managing Change: Centralizing Your IT Organization
July 29
Apply today for a FREE subscription to CIO Magazine!
News
Oracle to Buy BEA Systems for $8.5 billion
Oracle hopes that acquiring middleware vendor BEA will allow it to improve its own middleware suite, Fusion.January 16, 2008 — IDG News Service — Oracle has agreed to buy BEA Systems for about $8.5 billion, the companies announced Wednesday. The deal comes just three months after the middleware vendor turned down an earlier offer of $6.7 billion.
Oracle hopes that acquiring middleware vendor BEA will allow it to improve its own middleware suite, Fusion.
That middleware is key to helping customers migrate their systems to a service-oriented architecture (SOA), CEO Larry Ellison said in a conference call last month to discuss the company's earnings.
With Fusion already able to link to BEA's WebLogic Java application server, the deal is likely to speed Oracle's adoption of Java-based middleware, the company said.
Oracle's customers have been telling it for years to buy BEA, it said.
However, the members of BEA's board were less sold on the idea: They turned down an 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."
But on Wednesday the companies split the difference, and BEA's board announced it had unanimously approved Oracle's latest offer of $19.37 in cash per BEA share.
The board accepted only after spending several months looking for other ways to maximize shareholder value, BEA Chairman and CEO Alfred Chuang said in a statement.
The companies expect to close the deal by midyear, subject to the approval of regulators and BEA shareholders.
Other stories by Peter Sayer
Copyright © 2008 IDG News Service. All rights reserved. IDG News Service is a trademark of International Data Group, Inc.
Strategies to Run a Lean Supply Chain: How Principles of Lean Manufacturing Transfer Benefits to Operations
Tuning ERP and the Supply Chain for Profitable Growth
Putting Data Center Stage
WAN Optimization for mobile users is critical to your business success
Riverbed in Gartner Leaders Quadrant.
Performance Brief: Mobile Application Acceleration
Optimizing Wide-Area Data Services Webcast
Integration as a Service: Are you connected?
Windows Mobile Series: How to Overcome the Top 10 Mobile Device Security and Management Challenges Webcast
How to Avoid the Worst Practices in Business Intelligence
Zen Master Series - The Transformation of Application Development with Ascendant Technology
Salesforce for Google Apps Webcast
Resource Alerts
Get instant email notifications by topic when white papers, webcasts, and case studies are added to our library.
China Aims to Protect Olympic Content From Pirates
Samsung Puts 128G-Byte SSDs Into Mass Production
Symantec Warns of New Word Attack
VMware Replaces CEO, Shares Plummet
The Internet Gets a Patch, As DNS Bug is Fixed
Groups: Targeted Ad Program May Be Illegal
US Senate Resumes Debate on Surveillance Bill
Google Launches Blog for Sub-Sahara Africa
Adobe Readying New Mashup Tool for Business Users
Celtel Begins Financial Compensation Program
How To Do Nearly Anything
Just the basics, please. Sometimes we all need a refresher or we need to make sure our team and our colleagues are all on the same page.
Over 25 tutorials on everything from business intelligence to virtualization.
