01.09.07
Oracle Returns to Headlines, Speculation Suggests It May Try to Acquire Yet Another Open Source Competitor
What if…?
At this stage, it is merely a rumour and speculation. And yet, it is not unprecedented. This could develop into move which is somewhat reminiscent to what Microsoft does to Novell—getting inside the city through Trojan horses, then spreading damage and mingling to wreak havoc.
According to this speculation, Oracle may acquire the Open Source database provider Ingres in order to better position itself against IBM. It’s probably another case of weakening Open Source offerings. Oracle has already acquired some Open Source companies to create confusion and take away code that rivals depend on (e.g. BerkeleyDB and MySQL). It’s a divisive move. They also tried to buy MySQL AB. A rather eccentric speculation said that they also want to lower the value of Red Hat in order to acquire the company.
In related news, Intel forms ties with an Open Source virtualisation company. It seems worrying that proprietary vendors try to squash Free and Open Source vendors through involvement that leads to paralysis. It remains to be seen if Novell will make an acquisition shortly. It has plenty of spending money—that which it received to compensate for inconveniences and compromises in its bizarre deal.
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.
shane said,
January 9, 2007 at 3:21 pm
poor Ingres, first CA then Oracle.