Software Firms Gorge at the All-You-Can-Eat Buffet

What is it with HP, IBM, Oracle and others gobbling up companies? They remind me of the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island on the 4th of July.

Since 2009 these 3 firms have been on a binge - gobbling up companies like Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut swallow hot dogs (FYI - the record for hot dog eating is 68 in 10 minutes). A partial list of firms acquired are:

• HP has acquired EDS, Lefthand Networks, 3Com, Palm, 3PAR, ArcSight and Fortify. This does not include previous purchases of Compaq, Peregrine, Mercury Interactive, Spy Dynamics and Opsware.
• IBM has acquired Guardium, Lombardi, NICS, Initiate Systems, Intelliden, Cast Iron Systems, Sterling Commerce, Ounce Labs, Coremetrics, BigFix, Storwise, Datacap, Unica Corporation and OpenPages. This does not include previous purchases of PricewaterHouseCoopers (PWC), Rational Software, Candle, FileNet, ISS, Cognos, SPSS, Watchfire, and Telelogic.
• Oracle has purchased Silver Creek, Sun Microsystems, Convergin, AmberPoint, Phase Forward and Secemo. This does not include previous purchases of Seibel, PeopleSoft, Hyperion and BEA Systems.

My point is that this takeover of niche players or players in single verticals is a trend that is gaining momentum and speeding up. There is a convergence of markets and all three are trying to become a one-stop-shopping place for the F500. All are beefing up for the fight in spaces such as storage, security, computers, operating systems, database software, middleware and applications.

This gorging will continue as the big 3 try to fill their stacks. My question is: which one is Joey "Jaws" Chestnut, which is Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi and which is Patrick "Deep Dish" Bertoletti?

Stay tuned...