Came across this article on TechTarget.com that questions the recent acquisitions within the SOA world as something that could potentially hurt the advancement of SOA technology in general…or kill or slow down SOA innovation? I would not put the recent Software AG acquisition of webMethods in that category, however. With that deal, it's two larger organizations coming together to better address their serve mar Came across this article on TechTarget.com that questions the recent acquisitions within the SOA world as something that could potentially hurt the advancement of SOA technology in general…or kill or slow down SOA innovation? I would not put the recent Software AG acquisition of webMethods in that category, however. With that deal, it’s two larger organizations coming together to better address their serve market. The larger issue is smaller and more innovative SOA vendors that have been quickly finding themselves as part of a larger player. There are too many examples of those types of acquisitions to list here, to my point. “With a wave of acquisitions reducing the number of vendors of software for service-oriented architecture (SOA), how much is likely to change? Since SOA startups may end up right below polar bears on the endangered species list, are sources of innovation disappearing like arctic ice? The good news is analysts interviewed for this article don’t think so. There may be some delays as innovative ideas have to emerge from larger corporate cultures, but mergers and acquisitions do not spell the end for SOA’s evolution.” The core concern is that most of the more innovative work occurs within venture funded startups that have to be innovative in order to differentiate themselves for the larger players that can dominate the market. Thus, when these guys are acquired the innovation typically slows down as the larger company consumes the smaller company. I’ve seen this time and time again, and have been involved personally. The factors at work, as outlined in the article, are that the venture capitalists around today are behaving differently than they did just a few years ago, and you can’t blame them. It’s very tough to get a company public, and thus drive an exit; they are now looking for the quick money of a hype-driven SOA multiples where they can get their money out, with a bonus, and invest it in other ventures. The game has changed. So, I see a lot of interesting SOA companies being sold in the next few years, as have a lot been sold in the past. This trend will clearly slow down innovation in this space, the larger players are just not as nimble. I’m not sure how you fix this, but I do think we need much more innovation in the SOA space for this concept to survive longer term. Software Development