HP in tie-up talks with BEA

Another day, another bed that HP is getting into ...

HP has confirmed it is in negotiations with BEA Systems as it attempts to take a larger chunk of the middleware market. Bill Russell, vice president and general manager at HP's software division, speaking at HP's Software Universe in Monaco, said the two companies are currently hammering out the terms of the joint marketing and selling agreement which centres on HP's Netaction web services. In preparation for the up-coming announcement, HP announced the free availability of its BlueStone application server 8.0. The aim, claimed Russell, was to provide the enterprise platform to which organisations can add web services. Russell explained that the acquisition of BlueStone 12 months ago was a vital step in HP targeting a larger market, enabling the company to partner with giants such as BEA. "BlueStone has a low market share but a strong development team and a good knowledge of XML, while HP has the brand. We're making an investment now so that we become stronger in middleware in two to three years time," he said.