ASG Acquires Riverglass: More Big Data Action
February 1, 2012
RiverGlass News and Media reported on their recent acquisition by ASG Software Solutions in the article “Allen Systems Group (ASG) Acquires Intelligence Search Intelligence Search Firm Riverglass.”
Based in Naples, Florida, ASG Software Solutions is a recognized innovator in IT software solutions. The company announced in October that it acquired RiverGlass, a leading provider of eDiscovery, advanced information collection, data management and analysis solutions.
We learned:
The integration of RiverGlass’ robust intelligent search technologies with ASG’s content management solutions will provide ASG customers with improved capabilities in data collection, management of structured and unstructured data, and access to meaningful analytics.
In addition to the RiverGlass acquisition, according to a December news release, ASG has also acquired Atempo, a leading provider of data protection and backup management software headquartered in Palo Alto, CA.
By acquiring these two data management solutions companies, ASG will be able to help its customers combat the exponential data growth and increasing complexity in meeting e-discovery and compliance regulations.
Jasmine Ashton, February 1, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
HP Announces Autonomy’s Software Will be Integrated Across All Products
December 8, 2011
When Hewlett-Packard (HP) purchased Autonomy this past August for $10.3 billion, nearly 24 times the small Cambridge-based software company’s earnings, it vowed it’s reasoning was to integrate Autonomy’s software with HP’s hardware products.
Three months later, ZD Net UK reported on November 29, Autonomy’s advanced data search, analysis and augmented reality technology will be integrated across HP’s products, in the article “Autonomy plots HP- spanning tech”.
Autonomy’s chief executive, Mike Lynch said:
“There is a lot of work going on between the different business units at HP [to integrate Autonomy technology]. Servers and storage is obviously key [but with the] Personal Systems Group stuff is going to come that was only available for very large companies. There’s also some really stunning technology for printing being done by both HP research and development people and Autonomy’s. More detail will be given very shortly.”
Autonomy’s technology helps make sense of information generated by social media, phonecalls, video feeds and other types of unstructured data. I am very interested to see what this technology brings to HP’s products over the next year.
Jasmine Ashton, December 08, 2011
October 25, 2011
Autonomy blew past Endeca with its acquisition strategy, revenue growth, and take no prisoners sales tactics. Now Oracle is compressing 10 to 12 years of Autonomy craftsmanship into a week or two of Internet time. The most recent acquisition by the database vendor is RightNow, a now cloud loving customer support vendor. Instead of the on premises craziness, a company wanting to chop customer support costs and reduce customer churn can license RightNow. Oracle is going to be the proud owner of RightNow.
You can read some of the details in “Oracle Buys Cloud-based Customer Service Company RightNow For $1.5 Billion”. RightNow, like Endeca, dates from the late 1990s. My hunch is that there will not be massive investment in RightNow’s technology. The customer list is the big asset.
Step back.
Oracle Text has roots in Artificial Linguistic’s technology from the late 1980a. (I bet the real search experts and the azure chip crowd in New York know all about this system. Hey, that’s why azure chip consultants are so darned successful. Legends in their own minds.) Oracle owns TripleHop, InQuira, and Endeca. Toss in the customer relationship management systems and those systems authorized vendors of search, and you have a collection of finding and tagging technology that makes OpenText search profligacy look downright abstemious.
My take away is that Oracle’s senior management took another look at Autonomy, considering the $10 or $12 billion price tag. Instead of making fun of Hewlett Packard, Oracle seems to have concluded that it needed to follow a similar strategy. Just on an accelerated schedule.
Can Oracle match Autonomy’s financial performance? Does Oracle have Autonomy’s management skill?
Quite a battle will be waged by two giants who care little about search and everything about taking business from the other. That’s the sprit of financial crisis capitalism.
Stephen E Arnold, October 25, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Endeca Deal Ups Ante in Oracle Fight with HP
October 19, 2011
Today American computer technology corporation Oracle entered into an agreement to purchase Endeca Technologies, a Cambridge MA vendor of software for unstructured data analytics and business intelligence for an undisclosed sum.
Who cares about this deal? Hewlett Packard to name one company. Other organizations will see this as a little known software company which has been absorbed by a far larger database and enterprise software firm. Search is now a bit like Norton Utilities, an add in.
After the deal closes, Oracle allegedly will create a comprehensive technology platform to process, store, manage, search and analyze structured and unstructured information together enabling businesses to make stronger and more profitable decisions.According to the Computer World article, “Oracle Boosts Enterprise Search with Endeca Purchase” Oracle said in a statement:
The purchase will allow Oracle to offer a range of technologies that will help enterprises process, store, search and analyze both structured and unstructured data in an integrated fashion.
Despite the range of customers and products that Endeca brings to the table, we suspect that the amount Oracle paid is probably hefty. Endeca has ingested more than $70 million since the late 1990s. Stephen E Arnold, author of The New Landscape of Search, told me:
Endeca tried to pull off an IPO several years ago. That did not take place. Endeca then raised additional money from Intel and SAP’s venture unit. Endeca was not able to generate the type of revenue Autonomy had achieved. Oracle’s purchase of Endeca complements or complicates the firm’s search and content processing cost situation. Now Oracle has the aging Oracle Text, the somewhat inefficient Secure Enterprise Search 11g system, the InQuira natural language processing system, the TripleHop tagging systems, and the Endeca Guided Navigation system. One thing is certain: consulting and engineering services will be required to herd these different technologies forward in a cohesive manner. Like Hewlett Packard, Oracle may be betting on big companies with an appetite for expensive engineering to make the deal pay, regardless of the price Oracle paid for Endeca. With Microsoft bundling Fast Search with some SharePoint licenses, Oracle’s desire for a high margin, no brainer upsell may be tough to achieve.
We foresee three primary challenges in Oracle’s future:-
- Avoiding the high cost base of supporting and enhancing quite different search technologies. This is a strategy that Autonomy was able to implement, but enterprise software vendor OpenText has not yet been able to make work at Autonomy’s scale.
- Fighting successfully against HP and Autonomy for services revenue in a market where search is a commodity and becoming a component in a larger software system. Exalead has implemented this strategy effectively. Now Oracle and HP will have to differentiate their offerings and maintain margins and fees for search solutions decline. Autonomy has outperformed Endeca for many years in both management acumen and revenue production.
- Finding a way to keep costs under control. Search is an expensive proposition, and Oracle will have to do more than get a Fortune 500 firm to sign on for Endeca’s solution. Oracle will have to boost margins, implement Endeca’s consultative approach to search, and invest in Endeca’s eCommerce, business intelligence, and unstructured data technology. eCommerce may be a tough challenge due to the increasing interest in open source solutions such as eBay’s acquisition of Magenta.
Our question: Who will emerge to challenge Dassault Exalead in search based applications? IBM OmniFind and Watson, an open source vendor, one of the many newcomers to search? Will Endeca’s MBA style approach to consultative engineering pay dividends to Oracle, a company with some US Marines type qualities? Culture shock, anyone?
Stay tuned.
Jasmine Ashton, October 18, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Oracle Plans for CRM Expansion
October 12, 2011
The consulting firm Ovum is weighing in on Oracle’s pending acquisition of InQuira; a move that expands Oracle’s CRM capabilities. Read the full review at, “InQuira buyout firms up Oracle CRM sway.”
Oracle’s pending acquisition of InQuira is a sensible move, providing it with tools to help enterprises unify web information with internal CRM data and provide more targeted sales, marketing, and customer service. Although Oracle already had a partnership and integration with InQuira, the acquisition will ensure that knowledge becomes an intrinsic part of Oracle Siebel and Oracle Fusion CRM applications.
Just as every other sector of the corporate world, customer service channels will need to respond to the ever-changing mobile technology. Oracle will likely bring InQuira’s information expertise to work alongside its already successful suite of process management and business expertise products. The match is a good one and will likely prove fruitful for Oracle.
Emily Rae Aldridge, October 12, 2011
http://www.telecomseurope.net/
Silver Lake, Alibaba, Digital Sky in Talks of Buying Yahoo
October 12, 2011
Yahoo has been flailing around the internet ever since Google set anchor: this is no new news. The slight possibility for Yahoo to become a multinational corporation places the company in the media with Bloomberg’s article, “Silver Lake Said to Discuss Yahoo Deal with China’s Alibaba, Digital Sky.”
The private-equity firm Silver Lake in addition to China’s Alibaba Group and Russia’s Digital Sky Technologies are reportedly considering a joint bid for Yahoo.
We learned about the potential opposition to this deal from the article:
Regulators may oppose foreign ownership of a company such as Yahoo, which plays a crucial role in U.S. communications through the delivery of e-mail and instant messaging. The company also serves as the second-largest U.S. search engine, through a partnership with Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) The deal would face tax implications as well because of Yahoo’s stakes in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan Corp. (4689), one person said.
The whole deal is very much up in the air at this point. After the recent firing of CEO Carol Burtz last month, Yahoo plans on evaluating their current plan.
Additionally, it has been reported that the group is not even certain if they will make a bid.
Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma sees it in his best interest to buy Yahoo because Yahoo currently has a 40% stake in Alibaba. It would be interesting to hear about the motivations from the other two companies.
Megan Feil, October 12, 2011
HP and Autonomy to Effect Change on Each Other
October 11, 2011
Unstructured information growth is so high now, and it’s becoming such a core part of what we have to do within the enterprise, that it’s time for the database to be eclipsed by something that can handle both rather than just one type of information.
HP Acquires Autonomy. Investors Put on a Happy Face
October 4, 2011
A news release whizzed by on October 3, 2011, bearing happy tidings to Autonomy stakeholders. The deal with Hewlett Packard has been consummated. The news release asserted:
The acquisition positions HP as a leader in the large and growing enterprise information management space. Autonomy’s software offerings power more than 25,000 customer accounts worldwide and, as part of HP, will provide high-value business solutions to help customers manage the explosion of unstructured and structured information. Autonomy offers solutions that are complementary across HP’s enterprise offerings and strengthens the company’s data analytics, cloud, industry and workflow management capabilities.
Now with Ms. Whitman at the helm and Autonomy in the HP flotilla, will the company be able to generate the revenue required to pay for the “meaning based computing company.” I don’t have a clue. HP has some interesting challenges, but it has some big money units, including the ink business. I also think the print on demand unit has some potential, and the company desperately needs an improved findability solution for that unit as well as the HP Web site.
Fascinating to consider what HP can do. Microsoft paid $1.2 billion for Fast Search & Transfer. After three years, Fast Search is more or less a freebie for customers who buy oodles of client access licenses and jump on the SharePoint bandwagon. What will HP do with Autonomy? Make lots of money quickly is presumably one goal. We will monitor the trajectory of the deal because we think Mike Lynch could be the person to push out Ms. Whitman and get Autonomy managed effectively. Mr. Lynch is associated with search, but I think he is a much under-rated senior manager. HP could be the platform he needs to allow his skills to be showcased on a larger stage. Some “real” consultants who failed at being Web masters, home economics majors, and students of 18th century poetry will doubt my confidence in Mr. Lynch. Well, that’s why I am a big wheel in rural Kentucky and the “real” experts hang out in the world’s watering holes, not a pond filled with mine run off. Oh, the real consultants are not counting their billions as is Mr. Lynch I surmise.
Stephen E Arnold, October 4, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Autonomy Deal a Big Go
September 23, 2011
Short honk: I learned that the deal to buy Autonomy for $10 billion is a big go. Navigate to “HP’s Whitman: PC Spinoff, Autonomy Deal Still On.” Here is the passage I noted:
With regard to the potential spinoff of PSG, we’re committed to doing work right now to determine the best path forward and we expect the board to make a determination by the end of the calendar year if not sooner. This decision is solely based on the value to and investors and value to customers. Second, the Autonomy acquisition is proceeding as planned and is expected to be completed by the end of the calendar year and third, we continue to explore options to optimize the value of WebOS software.
Do I have some views of this deal? You bet. Will these be snapped into my free blog? Not a chance. Why make life easy for the failed Web masters, unemployed history majors, and repurposed home economics poobah-ettes.
Stephen E Arnold, September 23, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
The Summer of Big Deals
September 1, 2011
Will These Blockbusters Affect Business Intelligence?
The summer has been a hot one, not in terms of temperature, but when measured on the acquisition thermometer. First, Oracle the sprawling database and enterprise applications company bought InQuira. Then, Google took one third of its cash and the equivalent of two years’ profit and bought Motorola Mobility. And Hewlett Packard, one of the icon’s of the Silicon Valley way, spent $10 billion on its surprise purchase of Autonomy plc.
Business intelligence, intellectual property, and information management turned up the heat for investors and those tracking active market sectors. The market interest is high and many think these deals are likely to sustain their energy. But I don’t see it that way. I think the deals are more like dumping charcoal starter on charcoal briquettes: Very dramatic at ignition but certain to cool and fade into the fabric of day-to-day activity.
Starting a charcoal fire can produce some initial pyrotechnics. These fade quickly.
As the founder of Digital Reasoning, a company focused on delivering the next-generation solution-based on entity oriented analytics, I see these deals from the perspective of working with customers to solve big data analytics challenges. First, let me give you my view of information management and traditional business analytics and then outline where I think the technology and the market are going.
Business intelligence in general and analytics particular are now verbal noise. I know that most of the professionals with whom I speak interpret the phrase “business intelligence” in terms of their own experiences in getting information to make a decision. For some, business intelligence is a report and follow up telephone conversation with a human expert. Don’t get me wrong, consultants and advisors often do great work, but my point is that the phrase “business intelligence” is anchored in a method of information analysis rooted in human behavior unchanged since our ancestors sat around the camp fire roasting meat on sticks.,
The word analytics is equally difficult to explain. For many of our clients, analytics means SAS or SPSS (both the bread and butter of traditional statistics courses and business analysts from banking to warehouse management).
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