Software giant Oracle has offered $6.66 billion (fodder for anyone who believes Larry Ellison is, in fact, Satan) to acquire middleware player BEA Systems. BEA has been facing pressure to sell from billionaire Carl Icahn, who has built a strong positions as a shareholder in the company.
Published reports so far are painting this as consolidation in the business software market, but there's also a telecom-specific angle: BEA supplies back office software to telcos and other carriers, and over the last two years, Oracle has started to build a stronger position in the telecom OSS/BSS market through acquisitions of companies such as MetaSolv Software.
For more:
- The Denver Post has the Associated Press wire story