BEA Systems Inc. made good Sunday on its promise to let a 5 p.m. Pacific Time deadline expire on Oracle Corp.’s $17-per-share offer to buy the company.
The enterprise software maker’s board of directors had already said publicly that Oracle’s bid, which amounts to $6.7 billion, was too low. BEA instead named a price of $21 per share, which works out to roughly $8.3 billion.
Oracle issued a brief statement Sunday that was terse in tone, but it nonetheless did not rule out a future bid. “The BEA shareholders should not assume that Oracle will renew its $17 per share offer in the future,” the company said. “Over time, many things can change: BEA’s business might materially weaken, the stock market can fall further from its recent record highs or Oracle may have committed its capital elsewhere.”
A BEA spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.
Oracle has coveted BEA’s customer base and share of the middleware market, but company officials called BEA’s demand “impossibly high.”
While Oracle’s next move remains to be seen, other companies may look to acquire BEA.
Burc Oral, president of the New England BEA Users Group, brought up some oft-mentioned names — Hewlett-Packard Co., SAP AG — but said that perhaps an unlikely suitor will emerge for the firm. “I have always thought that stackwise, HP is a good candidate. I was also thinking about a sleeping giant, like [CA Inc.]. They have no overlap.”
