Oracle making a play for SAP? No way.

A Forbes story lobs a bombshell, reporting a 'rumor' of a takeover bid of SAP by Oracle, which reputedly drove SAP's stock price up a modestly. "There's talk that Oracle will bid $38.5 eur per share (nearly $50 US per share) for SAP," according to the Forbes article, which attributed the idea to a London-based 'dealer.' That isn't much of a premium, given SAP shares are at $46.63 with a $57 billion market cap for the company. Considering that the two companies are fierce competitors with very different cultures and code bases, and government regulators would never approve a merger that would consolidate enterprise software power into single company, it's nothing more than a specious rumor. Oracle and SAP joining hands would be like Apple and Microsoft getting in bed together--not going to happen except as an integration effort, such as SAP and Oracle's database. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is acquisitive like Attila the Hun, but not illogical.