Oracle Completes Stage One Of Operation Open Source Buyout
from the open-source-database?--check dept
In what may have been one of Silicon Valley's worst-kept secrets, Oracle has now officially completed its buyout of Sleepycat, makers of a somewhat well regarded open source database. If you've been reading the rumors, this is only the smallest open source buyout of the triumvirate the company is working on (with Zend and JBoss being the other two). It's no secret that Oracle is looking for growth-through-rollup, but the open source part of the strategy is still making some wonder what the company's strategy really will be. It's smart in that the company recognizes that open source technologies really do impact its market -- but it's not clear how Oracle will deal with a very different type of business model, which could directly cannibalize some of its own existing sales. It's easy to talk a good game about how the two can co-exist, but having your salesforce actually live it is a different story. If it goes well, however, it could be a case study for companies facing disruptive upstarts who recognize that "free" can often represent a realistic business model. Update: In other news, Om Malik points out that Oracle has also bought VoIP provider HotSiP. Must be a fun time to be working in M&A at Oracle...
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No Subject Given by Anonymous Coward on Feb 14th, 2006 @ 10:24am
Sales force is two words. Salesforce.com is a URL and a company name. And the oversized egos of the assclowns at that company don't warrant any additional free promotion.
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Re: No Subject Given by eric on Feb 14th, 2006 @ 11:16am
I thought ass clowns was two words.
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Ummmmm by Anonymous Coward on Feb 14th, 2006 @ 11:31am
I'm wondering why Oracle couldn't just kill the Sleepycat db. Why have the internal competition at all. Buy and kill the competitor. They've effectively done it with PeopleSoft and Seibel, why not Sleepycat.
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No Subject Given by Anonymous Coward on Feb 14th, 2006 @ 11:34am
I'm more interested that Oracle bought up InnoBase. I use MySQL for a simple database we have to store computer info but will be merging it to SQL Server to go company wide.
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Re: Ummmmm by Chris on Feb 14th, 2006 @ 11:36am
"I'm wondering why Oracle couldn't just kill the Sleepycat db. Why have the internal competition at all. Buy and kill the competitor. They've effectively done it with PeopleSoft and Seibel, why not Sleepycat."
They probably will. They just don't want to scare the SleepyCat people into jumping ship before they have a chance to assimilate them.... or at least close out their books and payables.
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No Subject Given by Steve on Feb 14th, 2006 @ 12:31pm
What's *really* interesting is that that this is the second open-source database company they've bought, that MySQL also supports natively (InnoDB was the first one).
I wonder what they're up to.
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Re: Ummmmm by Rex Wang on Feb 15th, 2006 @ 8:36am
I just wanted to reassure you that Oracle has no plans to discontinue any of the Berkeley DB products or change dual license business model. All of Sleepycat's employees have joined Oracle and will continue to develop, support, and promote the products. Both open source licensees and commercial licensees will be supported. Oracle will continue the business with minimal disruption.
Rex Wang
VP Marketing
Sleepycat Software
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sleepy cat by gaurav jeet on Aug 4th, 2006 @ 11:21am
i was an employee of oracle justr about a month ago and thats true sleepycat will be supported and developed as usual i was in the sales team and we know thw truth ....oracle is dedicated to sleepycats development and sales .
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