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DiggCompetition is spurring Business Objects SA to scour the landscape for potential purchases, and it's found plenty to bring home. The Paris-based provider of business intelligence software announced on Thursday its third acquisition of the the year. The latest purchase is FUZZY! Informatik, a Ludwigsburg, Germany-based provider of data quality technology in Europe, for an undisclosed sum. FUZZY! was founded in 1994 as a spin-off of the former Daimler-Benz AG, and boasts such customers as Daimler Chrysler, BMW, and Deutsche Post. Business Objects' latest deal came one day after chief rival Cognos Inc., of Ottawa, said it would buy analytics software provider Applix Inc. for $339 million.
At least nine deals in the business analytics space have been announced this year, including the largest, a $3.3 billion purchase of Hyperion Solutions Corp. by software giant Oracle Corp. Business Objects, meanwhile, has done smaller deals but more of them. On July 5 it closed an acquisition of privately held Inxight Software Inc., a provider of text analytics, federated search and data visualization software. Terms of that deal were undisclosed. In April, Business Objects bought enterprise performance management software maker Cartesis SA for $300 million in cash, and in December it bought Nsite Software Inc., an on-demand software provider, for undisclosed terms.
Consolidation is likely to continue in the space, and both Cognos and Business Objects could well become targets themselves. As Tech Confidential reported in July, Goldman Sachs Group analysts say that growth has slowed for both companies, with top-line growth likely to remain in the low double-digits for the remainder of the decade. Possible buyers include Oracle, SAP AG, IBM Corp., and Microsoft Corp., all of which have business intelligence offerings. — Cheryl Meyer
See Sept. 6 Business Objects press release
See Sept. 5 story from TheDeal.com
See March 1 story from TheDeal.com
See April 23 story from TheDeal.com
See July 13 Tech Confidential post
