Progress now eats Mindreef … must be hungry

As Joe McKendrick found out last night, it appears that Progress also purchased Mindreef, a testing and validation tool vendor.

“Progress Software’s announcement that it had acquired IONA Technologies earlier this week was big news, but the vendor didn’t stop there. In another acquisition that almost seems to have slipped under the radar, Progress also has acquired Mindreef, provider of SOA service validation and testing tools, as announced here at the Mindreef Website. (It’s not clear exactly when the acquisition actually took place.)”

(Full disclosure: Mindreef was a client of mine at the Linthicum Group, and at ZapThink.)

Clearly, Progress is sweeping up the smaller players in the SOA space and the acquisition of Mindreef is just the next step. Mindreef has good tools and smart guys, so I suspect they will have a new play now with some more resources.

The trick, as with the Iona acquisition, is getting this technology delivered within an overall strategy. The lack of a core strategy is where these acquisitions fall down, typically. Companies attempt to run them as separate business units and with no common strategy, and thus end users become confused, frustrated, and eventually leave. I’ve seen this time and time again in the SOA space and within the software industry in general.

So, how should Progress proceed?

First, announce what their intentions are with the newly acquired stack — what they will keep and how they will leverage the technology in the context of the emerging market and within the concept of SOA.

Second, make sure to lock up the key players. During many acquisitions they don’t provide an incentive for the smarter guys to stay and they leave to start new ventures.

Finally, understand that you’re now knocking heads with the larger guys and alter your marketing accordingly.