"Old software never dies"
![krigsman-michael-author.jpg](https://www.zdnet.com/a/img/resize/3e12b94f2810fdd855a6d2de90007db14b694a6b/2019/08/21/20fa0fef-eaac-4c13-8660-6c9ddfbcf9f3/krigsman-michael-author.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&frame=1&height=192&width=192)
Software analyst Judith Hurwitz makes an interesting point about Oracle's aggressive acquisition strategy, which has moved the company front and center into the middleware and enterprise applications business:
I have to give them credit for swooping in and buying their way into a leadership position. While it is hard to buy companies and keep them going, in the packaged software arena it isn’t as hard as it looks. For example, customers who buy a PeopleSoft HR application are not going to dump it just because the company was purchased by Oracle. Software is a funny thing — it lingers for decades after everyone assumed that it would be dead. As I always say, old software never dies.
Funny thing about enterprise software: it's expensive and painful to deploy, so it's shelf-life tends to measured in units of many years.