Enterprise storage management software vendor Legato Systems acquired Vinca for $94m. The Orem, Utah-based company develops high-availability and data protection software and Legato says the deal, coupled with its $69m acquisition of FullTime Software last October, effectively makes it the largest provider of data availability software for distributed systems. The acquisition of Vinca, Legato asserts, also extends its reach beyond the realm of high-end NT and Unix to mixed NT, NetWare, and OS/2 environments.
PeopleSoft invested $8m in supply chain vendor Commerce One to use its technology as the infrastructure for its new business-to- business e-commerce web site. As part of the deal, the ERP vendor has also made an eight figure royalty payment to Commerce One, although executives wouldn’t specify the actual amount. The new PeopleSoft Procurement Community, will become part of the PeopleSoft Business Network (PSBN), is based on Commerce One’s Commerce Chain product which includes its BuySite 5.0 procurement software, to allow businesses to buy and sell over the internet and MarketSite.net, an online forum for business products and services suppliers such as Office Depot, Unisource, BOC Gasses, American Hospital (for medical supplies) and Nokia. It’s built on XML and uses Microsoft’s BizTalk e-commerce standard.
Continuing to spend its way to the top of the EAI pile, New Era of Networks picked up batch update and PeopleSoft application integration specialist Convoy in a stock swap valued at $42m. Neon claims to have identified 75 technologies that a company needs if it wants to provide a full set of EAI services – plus packaged software products – and says it has got good coverage. It declined to specify just how many of these technologies it has under its belt now.
IBM threw its weight behind the emerging market for appliance or ‘thin’ servers with the acquisition of Foster City, California- based Whistle Communications on undisclosed terms. Whistle will be used to flesh out IBM’s small to medium-sized business campaign to which it has committed a $100m marketing spend. It will target Whistle’s InterJet servers at Soho small and home office users and small businesses with up to 100 employees. Whistle competes with the likes of Encanto Networks and Cobalt Networks. The likelihood is that IBM will use components of the WhistleWare software environment on other products are create new appliances to serve more dedicated application.
