Rumours swirled once again this week regarding a possible takeover of Red Hat, this time by SAP, but a number of industry observers said that the prospect is unlikely at best.
"There seem to be so many more directions that make more sense" for SAP, such as the enterprise mobility strategy it is pursuing through its recent acquisition of Sybase, said 451 Group analyst China Martens.
Sybase users and partners are wondering how the company's technologies will fare under the pending ownership of SAP, but some of the answers are easier to come by than others.
Gartner announced it is buying AMR Research for US$64 million, in the latest acquisition by the giant IT research firm. The deal is expected to be completed this month.
AMR is known for its emphasis on supply chain management. It has roughly 40 analysts and 45 sales representatives, and is on track to gross US$40 million this year, according to Gartner.
Sun Microsystems on Tuesday unveiled an early look at MySQL 5.4, the next version of its open-source database, one day after Oracle said it is buying Sun for $US7.4 billion.
Oracle has agreed to buy BEA Systems for about US$8.5 billion, or $19.375 per share, the companies announced.
BEA's board of directors turned down an initial offer from Oracle of $17 per BEA share in October, saying it "significantly undervalues BEA." Oracle in turn dismissed the BEA board's counteroffer of $21 per share as "impossibly high."
Nearly one-fourth of companies surveyed by ChangeWave Research are now using Web 2.0-social networking software in some form, and another 8 percent intend to do so within the next year.
The study is the organization's first stab at tracking Web 2.0 in the enterprise, said Joshua Levine, editor of ChangeWave Investing, an advisory service from the Rockville, Maryland, firm.