My phone and e-mail has been on fire this morning as news broke pertaining to Software AG purchasing webMethods. The comments and articles are hitting the Web now, including Jason from ZapThink. "This is huge news in the SOA space," said Jason Bloomberg, senior analyst with ZapThink LLC., "because the combination of Software AG and webMethods is now second only to IBM in terms of both traditional integration and My phone and e-mail has been on fire this morning as news broke pertaining to Software AG purchasing webMethods. The comments and articles are hitting the Web now, including Jason from ZapThink. “This is huge news in the SOA space,” said Jason Bloomberg, senior analyst with ZapThink LLC., “because the combination of Software AG and webMethods is now second only to IBM in terms of both traditional integration and SOA capabilities. This is a market share play and an SOA play entirely. Software AG gets a much stronger North American presence and they can now leave the likes of TIBCO and Oracle in their dust. Mark my words, Larry Ellison (Oracle chairman) is not going to be happy about this news.” Together, Software AG and webMethods will have a global customer base of more than 4,000 organizations, the announcement said. The acquisition will be a major step in the German vendor’s previously stated plans to double its annual revenue to $1.3 billion. “The deal significantly strengthens Software AG’s technology for SOA and BPM, which will now include the registry/repository and governance products webMethods acquired with its purchase of Infravio Inc. this past summer, added Ron Schmelzer, senior analyst with ZapThink.” I can’t disagree with either Ron or Jason, however there are a few more details to consider. First, there needs to be a common strategy around this acquisition. Customers are saying “what the..!” right now and there needs to be a foundation of technology and alignment with the emerging SOA market that justifies the deal in their minds, else they will look other places for their SOA technology. This means a formal roadmap and strategy stating to new and existing customers how the synergy here is a win for them, and thus the stockholders. Second, there needs to be some normalization of both entities in terms of what’s important for the support of this strategy going forward. That means, both deleting and adding to and from their technology portfolio…that with this acquisition is now plentiful. Finally, the company needs to take a leadership position in the market. Lead thought, drive communities of interest, and build acceptable approaches to SOA development that their customer base will find valuable. Miss any of the above, and the deal won’t have the value. However, good luck to both Software AG and webMethods. Good guys on both sides, I hope things work out for the best. Software Development