BEA scaring Oracle away?

BEA Systems is spooked by Oracle's $6.66 billion bid to buy the company, and is now trying to scare Oracle away with a demand for at least $8.2 billion (yes, it's almost Halloween). Actually, the very latest in this ongoing saga has one BEA official saying the deal might be "dead." Oracle wants to begin real negotiations on its offer of about $17 per share by this Sunday, but BEA is holding to its demand for a $21-per-share bid just to get the talks moving.

If the deal happens, it could greatly affect the competition landscape for telecom OSS/BSS and middleware software. We'll see.

So, far the give and take has been anything but boo-ring (shoot me now).

For more:
- CRN (part of CMP's ChannelWeb) has the latest

Related articles:
- Oracle made its bid for BEA two weeks ago