Software Titan Oracle Eyes Another Conquest

It makes $6.7B offer for BEA, but Icahn and execs reject it as too low
By Jonas Oransky,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 13, 2007 1:03 PM CDT
Software Titan Oracle Eyes Another Conquest
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison smiles during the Oracle Open World conference in San Francisco, in this Oct. 25, 2006, file photo. Oracle Corp. is expected to release quarterly earnings on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, file)   (Associated Press)

Software maker BEA Systems is under pressure from shareholder Carl Icahn to sell, but executives say this week’s $6.7 billion offer by Oracle is too low. Icahn agreed the unsolicited bid wasn’t good enough but said he was pleased an offer was made, the New York Times reports. Analysts expect Oracle to raise its offer and get BEA.

Icahn, who recently raised his BEA ownership stake to force a sale, argues the company’s independence hurts it in a consolidating industry. A purchase by Oracle, which has bought 34 companies in four years, would make the software titan dominant in corporate middleware—the programming code that serves as middleman between database and supply chain systems. (More Carl Icahn stories.)

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