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- Rackable seeks SGI crown jewels
- SGI lives on as Rackable changes its name
- Nanotech 2009 underway in Houston
- CBR calls it right: Vignette succumbs to acquisition
- Quick take: Open Text buys Vignette
- Micro Focus buys Borland, Compuware's ASQ biz
- If Apple bought Twitter....
- Apple to buy Twitter? Shiver me timbers
- Amazon exec lashes out at McKinsey cloud computing report
- Oracle inaugurated in Sun's culture
Jason Stamper's Blog: May 2009 Archives
Rackable seeks SGI crown jewels
May 11, 2009
Rackable Systems remained convinced that Silicon Graphics must have some invaluable IP hidden somewhere.
Rackable Systems has bought Silicon Graphics (SGI) out of bankruptcy for $25m, and announced today it would change its own name to SGI, with Rackable becoming just a product line.
More on the reasons for SGI's troubles, and the Rackable buy, here.
Thanks to vaxomatic (Flickr, CC licence) for the pic.
SGI lives on as Rackable changes its name
Rackable Systems has just completed its acquisition of Silicon Graphics, and intends to change its own name to SGI going forward. Rackable becomes the name of a product line sold by SGI. There's life in the SGI brand yet, it seems. Rackable bought SGI's assets in a bankruptcy deal for a paltry $25m, and is also assuming certain liabilities.
SGI's future has been in some doubt for several years now. I wrote a fairly critical piece back in the Summer of 2006, shortly after SGI had declared bankruptcy protection (not for the last time, it turned out) asking whether SGI would, as I put it, "Become the Next Data General?"
The piece was based on an extensive interview with the incoming CEO, Dennis McKenna, and I think it serves fairly well as a quick overview of why SGI found itself treading water, when once it had been a real powerhouse in the graphics-intensive server and workstation markets (click continue reading to see that piece if you can't already).
Nanotech 2009 underway in Houston
May 07, 2009
Visitors arriving at the entrance to Nanotech 2009 in Houston couldn't help thinking the organisers had taken the theme a little too literally.
Thanks to peephole on Flickr for the pic (CC licence).
CBR calls it right: Vignette succumbs to acquisition
In the July issue of CBR magazine, we featured a profile of Vignette, including an interview with CEO Mike Aviles. Concluding the piece, I wrote: "We would like to think Vignette can grow more strongly and steadily, but we have to concede that, on balance, we doubt Vignette will be around in its current form this time next year." Well it went almost down to the wire, but sure enough, Vignette was yesterday bought by Open Text.
In January this year, I reiterated my opinion that Vignette was not long for this world, in this blog: 'Interwoven bought, now surely Vignette will be next'.
Click continue reading if you'd like to read my Vignette profile of July last year, in which I outline the reasons that I didn't believe Vignette would make it as a standalone player.
Quick take: Open Text buys Vignette
May 06, 2009
6th May 2009
PRESS RELEASE
Open Text to Acquire Vignette
Waterloo, ON and Austin, TX, – May 06, 2009 – Open Text™ Corporation (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSX: OTC), a global leader in Enterprise Content Management (ECM) software, and Vignette Corporation (NASDAQ:VIGN), the company that the world's leading brands rely on for innovative and dynamic web experiences, today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement pursuant to which Vignette will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Open Text.
Vignette shareholders will receive US $8.00 in cash plus 0.1447 of an Open Text common share for every Vignette common share which equates to approximately US $12.70 at close of market on May 5, 2009. This represents a premium of approximately 74% above the 30 trading day average closing price of Vignette’s shares and approximately 41% above the most recent closing price. This values the transaction at approximately US $310 million.
John Shackleton, President and Chief Executive Officer of Open Text, stated “The combination of Vignette with Open Text will extend the breadth of our offerings and further Open Text’s positioning as the leading independent ECM vendor in the marketplace.”
“Vignette’s customers represent some of the world's most powerful online brands and we are excited about the opportunity to expand the relationship with these customers and partners,” said Shackleton.
“After a thorough evaluation of strategic and financial alternatives, the Vignette Board of Directors believes that today’s announcement provides attractive value for our shareholders,” said Mike Aviles, President and Chief Executive Officer of Vignette. “Our shareholders, customers, partners and employees will all benefit as Vignette combines with Open Text.”
“Joining Open Text builds on our commitment to deliver the most innovative solutions for our customers and partners. Vignette has an enviable customer base, deep expertise in Web Content Management (WCM) and global distribution capabilities. Vignette customers will benefit from Open Text’s expanded ECM solutions portfolio as well as their Vignette products being supported by the world’s largest independent ECM solutions provider,” said Aviles.
Vignette is based in Austin, Texas, and has approximately 700 employees. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of calendar 2009 and is subject to customary closing conditions, including approval by Vignette’s shareholders, Hart-Scott-Rodino anti-trust clearance, Securities and Exchange Commission clearance and stock exchange approvals.
Micro Focus buys Borland, Compuware's ASQ biz
Legacy modernisation vendor Micro Focus has acquired Borland, the venerable application lifecycle management (ALM) firm with a torturous recent history, for $75m.
The British firm is also buying Compuware's testing and automated software quality business for $80m. Micro Focus said that these products, along with those of Borland and Micro Focus’ existing product portfolio, will help to establish the company as a major player in the application testing and application software quality market, which it says is worth an estimated £2 billion globally.
If Apple bought Twitter....
May 05, 2009
Twitter employees are surprised when they discover that Apple staff are even weirder than they are.
[It was rumoured today that Apple might buy Twitter for up to $700m.]
Apple to buy Twitter? Shiver me timbers
Valleywag is reporting the rumour that Apple is close to sealing a deal to buy social networking site Twitter, for up to $700m. It seems far-fetched, truth be told.
“We hear it's Apple that's closest to sealing a deal, possibly for as much as $700 million,” the site reported. “A source who's plugged into the Valley's deal scene and has been recruited by Apple for a senior position says Apple and Twitter are in serious negotiations, with the goal of unveiling a deal by June 8, when Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference launches in San Jose.”
Why far-fetched? Because everyone who has ever had a conversation in 140 chracters or less knows that Twitter is worth, like, 10 times that amount. Sure, it may not have any meaningful revenue just yet, but neither did WebVan or Boo.com, right?
Amazon exec lashes out at McKinsey cloud computing report
May 01, 2009
Andy Jassy, senior vice president of Amazon Web Services, slammed a recent report by McKinsey & Co that was sceptical of cloud computing, saying in an exclusive CBR interview that it contains, “numerous factual errors” and research that is “skin deep”.
The report by McKinsey, published in mid-April, said that cloud services will not return cost savings to large enterprises. After comparing the use of a platform-as-a-service option such as Amazon’s EC2 against the cost of providing similar services out of a typical enterprise data centre, the consultants said: “Large enterprises can achieve server utilisation rates similar to those cloud providers are achieving from their platforms.”
McKinsey calculated that the total cost of assets for a typical enterprise data centre runs to around $45/month for a CPU equivalent, which it says is significantly cheaper than a comparable cloud service. “Most EC2 options are more costly than TCO for a typical data centre,” McKinsey said.
But speaking to CBR in London yesterday, Amazon’s Jassy, who is also in charge of Amazon Payments, said: “We were very surprised and disappointed by the McKinsey report – we don’t believe it is an accurate reflection of the truth. A lot of the analysis seemed only to be skin deep at best, and quite frankly there were a lot of facts that are just plain wrong.”
Oracle inaugurated in Sun's culture
Oracle realised it was going to take longer than expected to fully understand Sun's unique cultural traits.
Thanks to irILordy for the snapshot.
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