In a performance at the OracleWorld event in San Francisco last week, 1980s pop band Tears for Fears may have well summed up the future for the enterprise information technology market: 'Nothing ever lasts forever. Everybody wants to rule the world.'
On Monday, business-automation software giant Oracle capped an 18-month drama to acquire rival PeopleSoft by negotiating a US$10.3 billion deal.
Industry experts said the end of that long courtship would kick-start other mergers and acquisitions in the enterprise information-technology sector, where business-automation software suppliers SAP, Oracle, IBM and Microsoft dominate the landscape.
Making strategic acquisitions is necessary for companies to add more size and resources to stay competitive against bigger or better rivals, they say.
In the enterprise applications arena, for example, Germany's SAP remains the largest player. Oracle, after acquiring PeopleSoft, would become the second-largest enterprise application software vendor.
'We're going to give SAP a run for their money,' Oracle chairman and chief executive Larry Ellison said last week.