Acquisition of the Week: Mercury and Systinet

Wow. Well, this one came out of nowhere. Mercury picked up Systinet for a cool $105M in cash today. Everyone who's reporting on this seems to be focusing on how good a move this is for Mercury; how purchasing the Registry/Repository provider is going to enable Mercury's product lines to continue embracing and extending SOA. What everyone keeps ignoring is what this acquisition might do to the other SOA-based ISV product lines...Come on. When a company tells me about its registry, the conversation is nearly inevitably ended with an admission that the ISV OEM's Systinet's Business Service Registry. BEA. Oracle. Et al...Nearly every BPM and ESB product out there either OEM's the product or interoperates with it - and makes a point of mentioning that. Why? Because Systinet is, and has been, entrenched in the wider SOA market for about two years now. So why aren't these analysts talking about the impact this acquisition will have on the wider market?

Maybe because right now it looks like nothing. Mercury claims it will run Systinet as a "wholly owned subsidiary" so one hopes that nothing will change with its partners and customers.But the registry/repository space is a small one, and this acquisition leaves only Infravio and SOA Software as the most well recognized providers of registry/repository solutions in the market. Yes, Software AG has a solution, but its just making its first appearance this year and doesn't have the traction with ISVs that Systinet has. I'm guessing that Infravio and SOA Software are both licking their chops in anticipation that this acquisition will not be viewed positively by Systinet's OEM partners. With all the financial problems Mercury Interactive has had in the past few months - including being delisted from the NASDAQ - you can bet that some of Systinet's old OEM partners - and customers - are likely willing to listen.