Rebuilding The Internet With More Limits On Top Of The Internet... With Patents
Because When You Censor You Can't Collect As Much Data

Oracle Completes Stage One Of Operation Open Source Buyout

Deals

from the open-source-database?--check dept

Tue, Feb 14th 2006 9:51am — Mike Masnick
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...
8 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 14 Feb 2006 @ 10:24am

    No Subject Given

    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.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 14 Feb 2006 @ 11:31am

    Ummmmm

    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.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Chris, 14 Feb 2006 @ 11:36am

      Re: Ummmmm

      "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.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Rex Wang, 15 Feb 2006 @ 8:36am

        Re: Ummmmm

        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

        [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 14 Feb 2006 @ 11:34am

    No Subject Given

    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.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Steve, 14 Feb 2006 @ 12:31pm

    No Subject Given

    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.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    gaurav jeet, 4 Aug 2006 @ 11:21am

    sleepy cat

    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 .

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]


Rebuilding The Internet With More Limits On Top Of The Internet... With Patents
Because When You Censor You Can't Collect As Much Data
Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

Friday

19:39 Important Announcement: Techdirt Is Migrating To A New Platform (0)
More arrow

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.