Hewlett-Packard Nixes BEA Buy

ITer says it's best to remain neutral between software companies

By Jonas Oransky, Newser Staff

Posted Nov 21, 2007 12:48 PM CST

Copied

Hewlett-Packard Nixes BEA Buy — A Hewlett Packard Presto HP A10 Printing Mailbox appears with a color printed page, in Boston, Monday, June 11, 2007. The Presto, which has to be plugged into an outlet and an active phone jack and fed with an ink cartridge and plain white paper, functions as an e-mail program for people without computers.... (Associated Press)

“We are the Switzerland of these heterogenous environments,” a Hewlett-Packard exec said by way of explaining why his company is not interested in acquiring BEA, after BEA rejected an offer from Oracle as too low. HP is a partner of BEA’s, the company's software chief said, but HP has similar relationships with BEA rivals.

HP supports their software as well—in order to provide customers with the most options. “I think we would lose our agnostic position,” the exec said. “Strategically I think it has a lot of risk associated with it.” (More BEA Systems stories.)

Report an error