Playing Hard to Get

BEA rejects then counters Oracle's takeover bid; plus, a new round of Microsoft vs. Google, a new meaning for SaaS, a new forecast for enterprise software and more news of the week.

After beating other potential bidders to the punch, Oracle may not end up walking away with the prize. The company's offer for BEA spent the week in a constant state of flux, and by Friday morning, looked like a long shot – or at minimum, a long fight.

Early this week, BEA's board rejected Oracle's hostile takeover offer. Later, the company countered Oracle's bid, saying it wasn't high enough.

Your Chance to be on Startup City TV

InformationWeek is launching Startup City TV – an open forum where up-and-coming companies have the opportunity to present their solutions to be broadcast on InformationWeek.com. InformationWeek wants your startup company to be a part of it.

Here's your chance to tell InformationWeek's senior technology audience about yourself, what your company offers and why it matters in business. On Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2007, video taping sessions will be held at the InformationWeek San Francisco, CA and Manhasset, NY studios. You've got one chance to give your elevator pitch – so be ready!

There are 2 format options: 1) 1 minute elevator pitch, or 2) you can have 2 minutes if you bring a customer with you and we'll wrap-up with: 3 minutes for a Q&A session with one of the InformationWeek editors.

To sign up, contact Ellen Asuncion at easuncion@cmp.com to obtain available taping times in San Francisco, CA or Manhasset, NY, and to complete a submission form.

SANDHILL.COM BLOG POST OF THE WEEK:

Virtual Appliances: An Alternative Approach to SaaS Value

The greatest challenge for software application companies today is accelerating new license growth while maintaining a reasonable level of expense for sales and R&D. Many have hailed Software as a Service (SaaS) as the best solution to the license growth challenge - after all, SaaS can enable new license sales to a set of customers that historically didn't buy software because they couldn't afford the cost or complexity of the technology.

But SaaS requires a significant investment in technology infrastructure and a change in business model that many application companies can't reasonably undertake. Nor is SaaS necessarily the best option for some customer situations and application profiles. Luckily, a new model is emerging that provides customers with all of the value of SaaS without forcing the application provider to dramatically alter their technology or their business model.