Oracle to buy Business Objects to buy ALG Software…

You can always tell when software developers’ marketing departments see stronger signs of a technology’s acceptance and maturity in the market – consolidation peaks. And that’s the case with business intelligence (BI): strong rumours spreading around the Internet indicate that Oracle is pursuing BI aggressively. Privately held Armstrong Laing, which trades as ALG Software and last year turned over $19 million, specialises in profitability management and activity based costing software. Business Objects’ purchase will be an all-cash £30 million transaction and is expected to complete late this year. Business Objects plans to integrate ALG Software’s profitability management suite with its own EPM and BI offerings. “We will provide our customers with a powerful arsenal for building high impact performance management solutions,” says John Schwarz, CEO of Business Objects. “The EPM market is in the midst of rapid change, and with this acquisition we will continue to play a leading role in shaping the market.” A very poignant remark if the Oracle rumour turns out to be well founded. Neither company was able to confirm or deny the reports, but there were substantial moves on Business Objects’ stock this week. But either way, the consolidation story is strong. Notwithstanding less well founded stories, like the possible purchase of BI big boys Cognos or Hyperion by IBM or SAP, Oracle’s deal on predictive analytics software firm Sigma Dynamics is now complete. Beyond speculation about who might own whom, and what that might mean for users, that purchase means that manufacturers choosing to adopt the combined Oracle/Sigma suites will get the ability to gain insight not just into historical trends but futures, driven by real-time continuously changing data sources. BI certainly is one of the most powerful enterprise software add-ons for manufacturing business users.