HP readies a software move, reportedly eyed Tibco
Hewlett-Packard appears to be getting an itchy trigger finger when it comes to pulling off a big software deal.
Reuters is reporting that HP held talks to buy Tibco, an enterprise software company with a focus on messaging. Tibco would a bevy of financial services customers and projects like tibbr, which is a spin on enterprise social networking.
Tibco is a regular in the takeover target chatter, but would be an interesting fit with HP. Leo Apotheker, HP's CEO, is betting that software will be the "glue" of the company, which is also focusing on cloud computing. Tibco focuses on real-time infrastructure including business integration, process management and optimization and is built on services oriented architecture.
As part of HP, Tibco would also help Apotheker's plan to focus on verticals. Tibco's strongest vertical is financial services but its products extend to healthcare, utilities, telecom, manufacturing and retail.
Meanwhile, Tibco would bring some growth to HP's software table. The company has been reporting solid quarters and its first quarter results were better than expected. In the first quarter, Tibco reported non-GAAP earnings of 16 cents a share on revenue of $185.3 billion. For fiscal 2011, Tibco is expected to deliver net income of $156.6 million on revenue of $864.1 million. Tibco executives also noted that the company's pipeline was the strongest seen.
Despite those results, some analysts maintain neutral ratings on Tibco because they view shares as pricey. The upshot is Tibco probably wanted more than HP was willing to pay.