Oracle announced Feb. 10 that it has agreed to acquire Convergin, which
provides network integration software for the communications industry.
In a statement, Oracle said it expects to integrate Convergin's products into
its existing software portfolio, allowing "customers with next-generation
solutions to address network migration to an all-IP core, significantly
reducing integration and hardware costs." At least in theory, the merger
would give communications companies a single carrier-grade, standards-based IT
platform on which to build their service-delivery capabilities.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition is expected to
close in the first half of 2010.
Convergin utilizes a J2EE (Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition)-based service
broker platform that allows communications companies to manage their services
across a wide number of networks and varying application platforms.
"As communications service providers transition from legacy telephony
networks to next-generation networks, the combination of Oracle and Convergin
will accelerate new service innovation while reducing network complexity and
cost," Bhaskar Gorti, senior vice president and general manager of Oracle
Communications, said in a statement.
Oracle began 2010 in a strong financial position, having closed out the
previous year with reported revenues of $5.86 billion and a net income of $1.46
for the last quarter. Sales of new software licenses had risen 2 percent year
over year, despite Oracle's own prediction that those particular sales would
either be flat or down. But analysts have suggested that Oracle may have
difficulties maintaining that strong growth in 2010.
"Experts believe the technology value proposition for additional modules
like order management, talent model, etc. [is] not going to drive sales as much
as Oracle would like us to believe," Laxmi
Poruri, an analyst with Primary Global Research, told eWEEK Dec. 12,
"unless there is a more significant turnaround than what we are seeing in
terms of total IT [spending]."
This year will also see at least some of the results from Oracle's larger 2009
initiatives, such as its Middleware 11g platform upgrade, which allows for
increased operational insight and automation of an enterprise's middleware
stack.
But Oracle's 2010 will likely be dominated by its acquisition of Sun
Microsystems, a $7.4 billion deal originally announced in April 2009 that in
theory will allow Oracle to fully integrate Java and Solaris into its products.
That will contribute to what Oracle's executives have announced as the
company's near-term goal: challenging IBM in
the systems arena.
"We have a deep interest in the systems business," Oracle CEO
Larry Ellison told an audience at the Churchill Club, in San
Jose, Calif., in September.
"We've already beaten IBM in software.
Now we want to beat them in systems."
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