Icahn raises stake in BEA Systems
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Billionaire shareholder activist Carl Icahn raised his stake in BEA Systems, as he ramps up the pressure to push the company's board into selling the enterprise applications software maker.
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Billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who is pressing for board changes at biotechnology company ImClone Systems Inc. , on Wednesday acknowledged that he rejected $36-per-share takeover offer for the company, saying the company is worth more.
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Given the silence from the BEA Systems and Oracle camps early this week about Oracle's unsolicited proposal to buy its middleware rival, the community at large can only sit back and guess what might be the next scene in this drama.The two companies have been keeping quiet since last Friday's blockbuster revelation that Oracle was seeking to acquire BEA for $17 per share, or about $6.7 billion. Both have spurned requests this week for media briefings to elaborate on the issue.Undoubtedly, much is taking place behind the scenes, as aggressive Oracle seeks to add BEA to the impressive list of formerly independent companies it has acquired, which has included, among others, PeopleSoft and Siebel Systems. BEA, meanwhile, also has to be pondering its next step.Officials at Sun Microsystems, which invented the Java platform that serves as the backbone of many BEA and Oracle products, seemed to be caught off-guard when asked about the proposed merger at a Sun event in San Francisco on Tuesday evening.Chuckling, Rich Green, Sun executive vice president of software, suggested contacting Oracle CEO Larry Ellison about the matter. But when asked what impacts might be felt by the Java platform itself, Green did not see any negative effects."They're both Java supporters," Green said. "I think it's neutral to Java. I think it's just fine."Sun's James Gosling, a founder of Java and chief technology officer for Sun's client software group, concurred. "They're both big supporters of Java. I don't think it's going to have much effect one way or the other," Gosling said.Oracle has pledged to protect investments customers have made in BEA products. While Oracle's move has been characterized in some circles as a hostile takeover attempt, BEA's initial response merely said the Oracle offer undervalued the company.Major BEA stockholder Carl Icahn has been prodding for a sale of BEA, prompting one BEA insider to suggest Icahn did not have enough shares and would have a hard time getting control of the BEA board of directors in order to make the sale happen. Now, Oracle has forced BEA's hand. If history is any indication, the sale is likely to happen. PeopleSoft opposed Oracle but eventually succumbed."We certainly saw how persistent Oracle was in chasing PeopleSoft," said Dennis Callaghan, enterprise software analyst at the 451 Group, who expects the merger to be completed.Options for BEA to resist Oracle may be limited. To take the company private and avoid a merger, BEA would need to find a private equity partner, Callaghan said. And then there is Icahn, owning a significant stake in the company and wanting the company sold."It's not like [BEA CEO and co-founder] Alfred Chuang can regain control of the company and take it private. He's got to make his shareholders happy," said Callaghan.Even BEA employees could profit on a merger if they bought stock at a discounted price and then were able to sell it at an inflated price as a result of a merger, he said.? They might lose their jobs at BEA, but a lot of them would be very employable, winding up with startup ventures, he said.Callaghan added he expects Oracle to increase its offer. HP is a possibility as another potential buyer for BEA, but HP has had troubles of its own integrating acquired companies, such as Peregrine and Bluestone Software, Callaghan saidHe gave credence to the notion that Oracle may be buying BEA to stock up on its middleware offerings as the database market, which has been Oracle's cash cow, now features free, open source offerings from competitors.? "From what I understand, [databases is] not really a growing business at this point, Callaghan said.A dignitary in the Java development space had a mostly positive reaction to the proposed merger."Oracle and BEA both have amazing engineering teams, but Oracle's business operation is clearly many, many times the size and scale of BEA's," said Rick Ross, founder of the Javalobby Web site for Java developers. Having both teams under the same umbrella would create great opportunities for innovation, Ross said. And BEA's technology, such as the JRockit Java Virtual Machine, could become more widely used, he said.But there could be a down side, Ross noted."As the realized market share of a single player moves to such a dominant position, it becomes less and less likely that the startup innovator can gain a foothold," he said.IBM, BEA, and Oracle are battling in what research firm IDC calls the application deployment software space, which is comprised of application servers, integration software, message-oriented middleware and transaction processing monitors. This market space, valued at $9.4 billion in 2006, is growing at nearly 18 percent year over year because of trends in integration, business process management, and SOA, said Maureen Fleming, IDC program director.When including software mainframes, IBM last year had a 36 percent market share, valued at $3.3 billion. BEA trailed with 11 percent or $1 billion, and Oracle had 9 percent, or $850 million. The figures include license and maintenance revenuesWhen leaving out mainframe software, the market size dropped to $6.5 billion, with IBM still leading with a 20 percent market share, or $1.3 billion and Oracle garnering 13 percent or $850,000. BEA came in right behind Oracle with 12 percent or $840,000.
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Oracle Corp  withdrew a $6.7 billion bid for business software maker BEA Systems Inc  on Sunday, setting the stage for a proxy battle between activist investor Carl Icahn and the BEA board.
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NEW YORK/BOSTON  - Activist investor Carl Icahn threatened on Friday to launch a proxy battle for control of BEA Systems Inc  if the software maker does not begin an auction process to sell itself.
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Billionaire Carl Icahn charged ahead on Monday in his efforts to acquire Reckson Associates Realty Corp.  and an affiliate company for $49 per share, or $4.3 billion in cash and stock, even as his former partners in the deal pulled out of the running.
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Business software maker BEA Systems Inc  has agreed to be acquired by Oracle Corp  for $8.5 billion, the companies said on Wednesday.
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Activist investor Carl Icahn has made a $2.43 billion offer for U.S. auto parts supplier Lear Corp. , the two parties said on Monday.
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Billionaire investor Carl Icahn said on Friday a sale of BEA Systems Inc  to a strategic acquirer would maximize the value of its shares and that he might seek to nominate directors to the software maker's board.
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SAN FRANCISCOâBEA Systems Inc. took advantage of the proximity of Oracle Corp.&#39;s OpenWorld conference here this week to introduce BEA WebLogic Server 9.0, which is designed to allow developers to rapidly
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BEA Systems&#39; board of directors has named an acquisition price to competitor and suitor Oracle: $21 a share, $4 more than Oracle&#39;s initial offer.
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Billionaire investor Carl Icahn on Monday said he offered to buy auto parts supplier Lear Corp.  for $36 a share in cash, or $2.43 billion, saying the company is poised for a turnaround amid a downtrodden auto sector.
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Financier Carl Icahn on Friday offered to buy the shares of generic drugmaker Mylan Laboratories that he does not already own for $4.9 billion, or $20 a share, according to a government filing.
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Business software maker Oracle Corp. agreed Wednesday to buy BEA Systems Inc. for about $7.85 billion, a compromise price that ends a months-long dispute over the value of the company that pioneered Web services software.
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Business software maker BEA Systems Inc  has agreed to be acquired by Oracle Corp  for $8.5 billion, a 14 percent premium to its first offer, the companies said on Wednesday.
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Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has quietly amassed a large stake in department store operator J.C. Penney Co Inc , The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
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Veteran financier Carl Icahn said he and a group of investors are willing to buy Mylan Laboratories Inc. for $20 per share, according to a Friday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.