Dell To Acquire Ocarina Networks

Dell Inc has announced that it has signed an agreement with San Jose-headquartered Ocarina Networks to acquire the company. The terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed.

Ocarina Networks operates in the domain of optimization technology for heavy-duty storage. The company’s offerings have the potential to free up 30% to 75% of existing storage capacities, releasing network bandwidth, power, cooling, data center space and management, resulting in CapEx and OpEx savings. In today’s business environment where data is largely unstructured, the company’s technologies can make a significant difference.

The acquisition of the company will allow Dell to integrate Ocarina’s products into its existing deduplication solutions portfolio.

Ocarina Networks was founded by Murli Thirumale in 2007, who was its CEO at the time of the acquisition. The company had been a vendor for Dell for over a year. Post acquisition, Dell plans to invest in further engineering and sales capabilities of Ocarina, and would not immediately move the company’s operations from its present premises. The present management team is also likely to remain intact.

Read more about the latest acquisition of Dell in storage technology domain, here.

IBM To Acquire Sterling Commerce

Armonk, New York-headquartered IBM Corporation has announced that it will acquire Sterling Commerce Inc, a 100% AT&T subsidiary with offices in Columbus, Ohio. The transaction will cost IBM USD 1.4 billion in cash.

Sterling Commerce operates in the domain of B2B integration. The company has 18,000+ customers at the global level which are using its products and services to connect and integrate with partners, suppliers and their own customers in order to simplify and automate the way they do business. The company is said to be behind over 1 billion business interactions that happen every year amongst its customers. Its target vertical markets are financial services, retail, manufacturing, communications and distribution industries.

For AT&T, a holding company predominantly in the communications domain, Sterling Commerce was not such a good fit. But for IBM, Sterling’s product portfolio complements its own middleware portfolio. The acquisition enables IBM to now offer even more cross-channel solutions to its clients. The acquisition leads to a new set of customer base opening up for IBM, who were already a captive base for Sterling.

Post the acquisition, about 2,500 Sterling Commerce employees are expected to be integrated into the WebSphere organization within IBM’s Software Group.

Read more about the latest strategic acquisition undertaken by IBM, here.

SAP Buys Sybase

Walldorf, Germany-headquartered SAP AG has announced that its subsidiary, SAP America Inc has acquired Dublin, California-headquartered Sybase Inc. Post acquisition, Sybase will continue to function as a standalone unit under the name “Sybase, an SAP Company”. The acquisition has cost SAP America USD 5.8 billion. Part of the funding is being managed through a loan arranged and underwritten by two banks – Barclays Capital and Deutsche Bank. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the third quarter of 2010.

The management team of Sybase has not been changed. The Chairman and CEO of Sybase, Mr. John Chen, will be given a seat at the Executive Board of SAP.

By owning Sybase, SAP hopes to leverage its expertise in mobile platforms. SAP plans to use Sybase’s mobile technology to connect all applications and data – both SAP as well as non-SAP – and put them on the mobile devices. Sybase has in place 4 billion mobile subscribers who are using its technology with the help of 850+ operators spread around the world. The USD 5.8 billion gives SAP the capability to reach out to these 4 billion mobile subscribers on a platter.

Read more about a strategic initiative taken by the German behemoth to increase market penetration, here.

Micron To Acquire Numonyx

Boise, Idaho-headquartered Micron Technology Inc has announced its plans to acquire Switzerland-based Numonyx B.V.

Numonyx is reckoned a leader in the semiconductor industry. The company manufactures and supplies a full complement of integrated NOR, NAND< RAM and phase change non-volatile memory technologies and products that go into cellular, data and embedded markets. Some of its trademarks and brands include Numonyx Axcell Flash Memory, Numonyx Forte Serial Flash Memory, Krypto Security Technologies, and StrataFlash Technology. The company’s manufacturing and R&D facilities are located around the globe, such as in Italy, Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore, China, Philippines, US and Israel. Mr. Brian Harrison is the President and CEO of Numonyx.

The acquisition is the outcome of an agreement between Micron and Numonyx, per which Micron will issue 140 million Micron common shares to Numonyx shareholders, Intel Corporation, STMicroelectronics, N.V. and Francisco Partners. The entire transaction will cost Micron about USD 1.27 billion.

With this acquisition, Micron hopes to position itself as a world-leading memory company, integrating the expertise of Numonyx in its portfolio. Micron will also be able to leverage the tremendous manufacturing capabilities of Numonyx to make inroads into the newly-emerging embedded and mobile markets.

Read more about the latest business acquisition that will shake up the memory technology industry, here.

Broadcom To Acquire Teknovus

Petaluma, California-headquartered Teknovus Inc has entered into a take-over agreement with Broadcom Corporation. The acquisition is expected to fructify in the first or second quarter of 2010, subject to regulatory requirements and other customary closing conditions. The deal is likely to cost Broadcom USD 123 million in cash, which will be spent in acquiring all of the outstanding shares of capital stock and other rights of Teknovus.

Teknovus is a leading developer and supplier of access chips and embedded software for the FTTx (Fiber-to-the-home) market. Teknovus specifically deals with Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) chipsets and software. The advantage of EPON technology is its capability to deliver speeds of up to 10 GBPS over fiber optic cables. In the entire FTTx market of the Asia-Pacific region, EPON technology dominates by as much as 94%. Market research surveys indicate that the PON market is expected to boom by as much as 33% CAGR in the next five years.

For Broadcom, the addition of strong EPON expertise and products to its present portfolio of switching, DSL, GPON and cable solutions, increases its already formidable presence as key player in the telecom industry.

Read more about the latest inorganic growth strategy being implemented by Broadcom, here.

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