Did Ya Hear: DM Deals and Alliances

Sun Microsystems announced it would buy open-source database software company MySQL AB for $1 billion. Sun is paying $800 million in cash and assuming $200 million in options for MySQL, which had revenue last year of $60 million. According to Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz, Sun acquired MySQL because of the companies that use the database, particularly for Web-based applications. "We are really acquiring a database that customers and Web companies across the world have moved to at a breathtaking clip," he said in a published interview. www.sun.com

Oracle’s long pursuit of BEA Systems culminated in success as Oracle announced it had entered a definitive agreement to acquire BEA. “The addition of BEA products and technology will significantly enhance and extend Oracle's Fusion middleware software suite," said Oracle CEO Larry Ellison at the time of the announcement. Additionally, has announced out-of-the-box Oracle Fusion Middleware-based integration between Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise Customer Relationship Management (CRM) 9 and Oracle Customer Hub. With the new integration between PeopleSoft Enterprise CRM and Oracle Customer Hub, users can easily cleanse and remove customer information duplications across systems and realize effective customer information consolidation, data quality management, governance and sharing of data across the enterprise, according to Oracle. www.oracle.com

IBM announced it has agreed to acquire Solid Information Technology, a privately-held vendor of in-memory database software. Solid Information Technology’s software uses in-memory database technology to retrieve data from a computer’s memory. Using this technology, businesses can access and store data at speeds up to 10 times faster than using traditional disk-based database systems. IBM also announced it is expanding its business event processing software portfolio by acquiring AptSoft Corp. a privately-held software company based in Burlington, MA. AptSoft technology helps businesses uncover the cause-and-effect relationships among seemingly disparate business events that occur in milliseconds or throughout defined periods of time. According to IBM, AptSoft technology will strengthen its SOA and business process management offerings through its simple, intuitive interface and correlation capabilities, which are designed to be used by business analysts and information technology professionals. www.ibm.com

GoldenGate Software, a provider of high availability and real-time data integration solutions, has announced a new certification. The certification process assesses the expertise of an IT professional with the GoldenGate Transactional Data Management (TDM) solution and is designed to offer customers, channel partners and employees an opportunity to prove their competency for implementing GoldenGate. According to Glenn Goodrich, education services manager at GoldenGate, as enterprises increasingly move toward real-time data management, demand for certified IT resources is increasing. www.goldengate.com

NEON Enterprise Software, the technology leader in enterprise data management software and services, was the guest speaker at the inaugural meeting of the Virtual IMS Connection, an independently operated, vendor-neutral site run by and for the IMS user community, developed by iTech-Ed, a mainframe consultancy company. www.virtualims.com

Initiate Systems, a provider of master data management technology, and Group 1 Software, a Pitney Bowes company, and a provider of data quality solutions, have announced a strategic alliance to jointly market a master data management (MDM) solution. This solution will comprise the Initiate Master Data Service Platform for accurate matching and linking of data and Pitney Bowes’ Group 1 customer data quality (CDQ) platform with third-party reference data for up-to-date names, addresses and other data. www.initiatesystems.com

Birdstep Technology, which offers state-of-the-art embedded database technologies, has announced that Juniper Networks, developer of carrier-class and enterprise routers and security platforms, is expanding the use of Birdstep’s RDM Embedded database solution in their Steel-Belted Radius (SBR) Product. Juniper is using RDM Embedded to manage critical user authentication and access policy management information. www.birdstep.com

Talend, a provider of open source data integration software, announced plans to work together with Microsoft to optimize Talend’s software on the Microsoft Windows platform. The partnership was initiated by Microsoft, Yves de Montcheuil, vice president of marketing, Talend, told DBTA. Talend’s flagship solution, Talend Open Studio, has been downloaded over 150,000 times. www.talend.com

ANTs software, a leader in compatible, high-performance SQL data management systems, has announced that using the ANTs Compatibility Server it has successfully re-hosted an application from Sybase to the Oracle database for a second customer, a global manufacturing and financial conglomerate ranked in the top 10 of Fortune magazine’s 2007 list of the largest companies. www.ants.com