Oracle Buys Hyperion – Our Two Cents!

Relax! We have not been bought by Oracle!

This latest acquisition between Oracle and Hyperion is just another example of what we’ve been saying for years! Embedded BI is the way of the future. Now, all application vendors are going to have to deliver integrated BI solutions if they want to stay ahead of the competition.

So who’s next? Well the talk on the street is that either Cognos or Business Objects (or both!) will be bought out by SAP or IBM, which will leave a huge market gap for independent BI vendors like Yellowfin. If IBM’s deal goes ahead, it will be an interesting move because up until recently they have not been involved in the application layer but rather middleware and hardware. As a result, IBM will actually begin to compete with its own application partners.  SAP naturally has a vested interest in providing its own BI solution so that it can retain a greater share of the client relationship and not give it up to Oracle.

And where do all these mergers and acquisitions leave the customers? Well, in the example of Oracle/Hyperion, all we need to do is look at the JD Edwards and Peoplesoft acquisitions.  For customers and employees alike the perception has been one of abandonment – after all these are not core products for Oracle.  Hyperion will probably go the same way and be subsumed by the Oracle machine.

In actual fact, this consolidation between Oracle and Hyperion will benefit a new set of BI vendor; those with a single laser like focus on BI. Like anything, the best innovation comes from those companies that stick to their knitting and understand the specific market they are in.

So, the biggest news in the industry at the moment is that Oracle has bought Hyperion; but is this only the start?