Oracle has had a jump in profits. They have an 11 percent increase to $635m in Q1. The reason for the increase appears to be database sales. Linuxworld has reported that Oracle is aggressively on the hunt for acquisitions and even claim that BEA is in their scopes. There don't seem to be any facts to backup that claim though.

Profit Summary

Profits for the quarter ended 29 Feb were up 11 per cent to $635m (2003: $571m) on revenue of $2.5bn, nine per cent up on last year's $2.3bn. Of course the falling dollar had its part to play, accounting for seven per cent of growth.

Read more in Oracle profits jumps on new licence sales

Linuxworld on Oracle acquisitions

...Oracle had been "looking at a variety of areas" but didn't identify any potential takeover targets. It has expressed interest in BEA as well as reserve over the price.

Read more in Oracle Eyes Other Acquisitions - Including BEA?

BEA would be a nice platform for Oracle to build Service oriented software. If Salesforce.Com business model is the future, then Oracle should buy BEA and migrate its business suite apps into BEAS platform from scratch, then it can compete with SAP, PSFT or Siebel using ASP business model. .
IMHO.
Bibin Kumar

Oracle is already offering their E-Business Suite in the ASP model see:
http://www.oracle.com/outsourcing/
And guess what, it is running on the Oracle Application Server - so I don't think this is a good enough reason for Oracle to buy BEA.

What would be the point of Oracle taking over BEA?
What do BEA have that is not competing with Oracle? There is no real synergy to be had. <shudder>did I just use the 'S' word...</shudder>
It would be a very expensive option just to shutdown a competitor...
I dont see why Oracle shareholders would be interested...
Maybe I am wrong. I am not an oracle shareholder after all...
-Nick

Weblogic is my favorite application server, but not because of performance or stability etc. (I simply cannot compare to other application servers), but because of ease of use, documentation and code examples. So I believe if Oracle promotes its application server in a right way not just shouting that this is the best and the cheapest to owner product and the rest is garbage, but rather providing a good developer friendly documentation and tutorial, they might have a chance to win the developers minds.
And it’s absolutely unnecessary to own two identical application Servers and JVMs.

What would be the point of Oracle taking over BEA?

Well, Larry Ellison has said numerous times that the best way for ORCL to grow today is by acquisition. So his first target is PSFT. Unfortunately for him, both Uncle Sam and the EU have decided to block his move. So what's his next potential target? The possibilities are (in order of likeliness):
An application server play (BEAS?)
An business intelligence play (too many players in a crowded space)
An integration play (WEBM?)
For now, BEAS makes the most sense. Yes, ORCL does have its on J2EE app server, but its market share is 10% compared to BEAS's 35%. By combining the 2 products (most likely by dropping its own OC4J), ORCL can be the No. 1 player in that space.

But typically this makes most sense into new market areas.
Assuming, that is:
1) There is a lot of money in that market to warrant the cost.
2) BEA customers would not jump ship.
3) the cost of dumping yet another appserver would not be too high.
And the other little technicality is that the BEA shareholders have to sell...
-Nick

Guys,

I think you are missing an important point - ORCL wants to by something big not because it makes sense, but because the anti-monopoly comission keeps its mouth shut under republicans. There may be no good time for ORCL to buy anything for long if they don't do it *now*.

Will it be BEA? - I doubt it. It's more likely that BEA joins HP.

If I were Larry, I'd look at Sybase.

I can't see Sybase as a takeover target. Their share of the market is so tiny that it's insignificant. The cost in time and effort to integrate their product lines etc. into Oracle really isn't worth it. They're not a real competitor so it would add little to their core competency. Furthermore it does not create a new market. Aquiring BEA is the go for them. It brings them mind share in the app server market. OAS doesn't have the name or provide clout in the market. BEA WebLogic does. It can bring them new clients and applications since most applications really have either WebLogic or Webshere in mind for deployment. It puts them more into the integration space also. The loss / cannibalisation of their own product is worth it. Let's face it. OAS was so superbly tooled they had to get Orion into it to make it perform adequately. Getting Weblogic adds to a more complete portfolio and loyal customers since most WL customers like it.

It all makes sense....

Than IBM should by Oracle. That would make much more sense.