Oracle kicks off business intelligence consolidation
Business intelligence is arguably one of the more important enterprise application categories. And there are going to be fewer business intelligence players real soon.
Oracle kicked off the business intelligence (BI) rollups by acquiring Hyperion Solutions Corp. for $3.3 billion, or $52 a share.
Why is this deal important? In many cases, BI is what delivers the returns on those pricey enterprise resource planning implementations. One of my favorite case studies was about a company called Zarlink Semiconductor. The company invested a lot in SAP, but didn't get returns until it ran Cognos software on top of it. The annual return: 2,742 percent.
Oracle obviously sees the writing on the wall. If it's going to convince folks to use its ERP software it might as well toss in the BI tools too.
Here's what Oracle said in a statement:
"The acquisition of Hyperion makes Oracle the category leader in the high growth enterprise performance management market," said Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. "Hyperion's EPM software coupled with Oracle's Business Intelligence (BI) tools and analytic applications form an end-to-end performance management system that includes planning, budgeting, consolidation, operational analytics and compliance reporting."
Meanwhile, Oracle can take another stab at SAP with its Hyperion purchase. When isn't Oracle trying to stab SAP?
Oracle President Charles Phillips was characteristically blunt about the company's plans.
"Hyperion is the latest move in our strategy to expand Oracle's offerings to SAP customers," said Oracle President Charles Phillips. "Thousands of SAP customers rely on Hyperion as their financial consolidation, analysis and reporting system of record...Oracle's Hyperion software will be the lens through which SAP's most important customers view and analyze their underlying SAP ERP data."
With Hyperion off the board it won't be long before other BI companies are gobbled up. Cognos is the most likely one to be acquired next.
More reading:
NYTimes: Oracle Deal for Hyperion Is Expected.
Dana Gardner: Oracle and Hyperion combo moves them closer to the ultimate business dashboard.