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Business Intelligence/Performance Management vendor Hyperion got bought today by Oracle for $3.3 Billion. Did you know 12,000 companies use Hyperion software including 91 of the Fortune 100?

Raw news here.

Meanwhile, several companies, including Cartesis, SAS, Cognos, and OutlookSoft got in touch today to talk about this deal.

"This is good news for Cartesis, however we are concerned for Hyperion's customers," said Crispin Read, Chief Marketing Officer, Cartesis. "Oracle offers alternative products to Hyperion's entire product line. What will the future bring? Which products will make it past Oracle's "fusion” project?

"We have already started to see Hyperion customers switch from Essbase to Microsoft SQL Server and from Hyperion Enterprise to Cartesis Finance. The question is how much this will accelerate.

"Between Oracle CPM, Siebel Business Analytics and Peoplesoft EPM – what will become of Hyperion System 9 Applications?," asked Read.

Russ Cobb, Senior Director of SAS's global marketing and training programs, said that SAS has been preparing for something like this for a long time, and Cobb reported that SAS sees the acquisition as "one of our smaller niche competitors being taken out of the market."

"Everyone had been seeing a shakout coming in the BI space, whether it was going to be IBM/Cognos, IBM/Business Objects, then most recently, Business Objects and Hyperion. The rumors have been flying and we have been expecting consolidation.

"Both from the Oracle press release and our own assessment, this is the Oracle/SAP battle. This is good news for us. We looked at Hyperion as a competitor in the PM space and to a smaller extent in the BI space. So we will see a lot of openings in current sell cycles.

"More good news for us as well is that we are vendor-agnostic when it comes to database or ERP vendors, so we can work with Oracle's and SAP's database/ERP systems and others, and have been for a long time," said Cobb.

Cognos, whose shares fell 64 cents, or 1.7 percent, to $37.47 today (1:28pm EST), is considered a likely takeover candidate for Germany-based SAP. However, Cognos' Les Rechan, the company's COO, put a positive spin on the news. He said that Oracle's intention to acquire Hyperion is "a game-changing event for our market and opens up a tremendous opportunity for Cognos."

"Our customers are benefiting from many of our “first to market” innovations in our applications, mobile solutions and Services Oriented Architecture – all key enablers of the most encompassing Performance Management and Business Intelligence solution in the market, "said Rechan.

"As an independent Performance Management provider, Cognos customers will continue to receive innovation on a rapid and regular basis – that are based on customer and market needs -- that only an independent leader can provide."

OutlookSoft CEO Phil Wilmington also had a few comments on the acquisition today. “This is an obvious business move for Oracle as they are buying up legacy application maintenance bases. However, for the customers of both companies, it’s potentially a bad move since they have no clear product roadmap. It’s going to take Oracle months to figure out a strategic product plan, and years to deliver on an effective one. Oracle has once again created a quagmire for customers— no one knows which products will ultimately survive the acquisition. Hyperion will likely be absorbed into the financial arena of the Oracle suite while other capabilities will simply fade.

“Consolidation is going to continue to happen this year. We view this as a distinct market opportunity for OutlookSoft to show Hyperion customers what’s available to them NOW in terms of Performance Management innovation – not 12 months from now," said Wilmington.

"Moving forward, customers will continue to demand pure-play BPM and not bolt-on pieces of technology, which presents a major opportunity for pure-play vendors in the space. Two big players will no longer dominate the space.”

Yahoo has an interesting article on the acquisition today too, which quotes our analyst partner AMR's Bruce Richardson. It shares some of his excellent analysis of the situation.

Posted by elizabeth in BI • M&A |Digg This|Add to del.icio.us

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