Web services: Buy low, sell high.
The Tawny Titan of Tattle hustled through Times Square, dodged the Naked Cowboy and took a cab to the posh
21 Club on 52nd to cover a schmoozefest at the venerable victualer sponsored by
BEA and
Blue Titan.
The event was a potpourri of Wall Street software analysts, vendors and the press. There was plenty of buzz in the room, but Spencer couldnt tell if it came from his martini or the speculation that Blue Titan will find a home under the
HP brand.
BEA still claims it will remain independent, but was that ever the plan?
Bill Coleman started BEA in 1995 with a promise to his wife to donate half his earnings to aid people with learning disabilities and to help his buddies
Ed Scott and
Al Chuang share in the wealth. So it makes sense, as some dinner guests speculated, that BEA might sell itself to a company that needs a Web-based application development platformwhich covers just about every tech company still in business.
A Wall Street maven in attendance said that when
Oracle quits its quest for
PeopleSoft, it, too, may focus on BEA. Of course,
Larry has a cameo in everyones gossip these daysone Katt crony recently claimed
Ellison may make a move on
Siebel Systems. Siebel Chairman and CEO
Tom Siebel recently confirmed that Ellison approached him about an acquisition last year. "Mmm, Ellison squaring off against the cranky Siebel would provide more fun than his current donnybrook with PeopleSofts Conway," cackled the Kitty.
As the Katt crawled under a table to retrieve an olive that slipped from his glass, he heard talk that
IBM may buy
ATG. The companies announced an extension of their Web server integration partnership earlier this month. "It would be easy for IBM to extend its tentacles to ATG, which is in Cambridge, Mass., near the assimilated Lotus," reasoned the Rumormonger. Still under the table, the Katt picked up a conversation about
Cisco users anger over the company telling its largest customers first about the recent IOS flaw. It seems Cisco gave the big ISPs and backbone operators a head start, then published a bulletin alerting the rest of the world. The imbibing Inquisitor was finally escorted from the premises after he tried to engage one of the clubs decorative jockey statues in a chat about the "Seabiscuit" flick.
Skatting back to his hotel, he came upon a juicy McNugget from a Tabby tattler:
Business Objects President
John Olsen said of
Hyperions recent acquisition of
Brio, "Hyperion buying Brio is like catching a falling anvil. Do you want a Happy Meal or a share of Brio? Theyre about the same price."
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