As most people in the BPM world probably know by now, OpenText Corp. has agreed to acquire Metastorm Inc., a Baltimore, Md.-based provider of BPM, business process analysis and enterprise architecture software.
OpenText, a Waterloo, Ont., provider of enterprise content management (ECM) software, described the acquisition as "a merger of Metastorm with a subsidiary of OpenText." OpenText expects the $182 million deal to close by March 31.
Since the announcement last week, analysts and bloggers have been weighing in on the deal's potential impact. Here's a sampling of reactions:
Gartner: The acquisition "will enable OpenText to strengthen its enterprise content management platform and will help it compete for opportunities in the case management and SharePoint markets, particularly in the public sector," Gartner analysts Janelle Hill and Toby Bell wrote in their analysis a couple of days ago. However, they see a potential downside--"further confusion regarding the business strategy behind OpenText's many acquisitions."
ECM strategist Lee Dallas: "Much like [OpenText's] StreamServe acquisition from late last year, this fills a gap in their overall business-application portfolio," Dallas wrote on the Big Men on Content blog he co-authors with Marko Sillanpaa.
Document Boss: The Document Boss blog team called the acquisition "no surprise," noting that OpenText continues "to be the most acquisitive company in the ECM sector." But in the bigger picture, according to the Document Boss blog, the acquisition "speaks volumes about the importance of BPM and accompanying analytics, and we expect more core ECM companies to add robust BPM capabilities throughout 2011."
What do you think? As always, I welcome your opinions and insights.
We think this is a very natural fit. We already have integration built between Metatsorm BPM and OpenText eDocs.
There has always been a need to provide solid and flexible Process Management around an EDM system, and the Merger of these two technologies can only be of benefit once it becomes native.