killthedeal.com
Inprise develops platform-independent development tools primarily targeted toward the large e-commerce systems populating the Internet and corporate intranets. This enabling technology is an essential component of the new information economy. The only comparitive companies are the respective tools divisions of Sun and IBM. Those products are solid but widely regarded to be shadows of Inprise technology. Inprise also owns middle-ware technology which competes with Iona (Nasdaq:IONA), the only other real competitor. Minus their cash, the entire package of Inprise technology has a market value of $125 plus million when it should be hovering on or above the $1000 million mark -- yes, a billion.
Companies such as Oracle have bet their businesses on the use of Java and XML for B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer) for e-commerce solutions. Inprise gambled on those technologies and it's about to pay off: companies planning on deploying high-capacity e-commerce solutions over the Internet had better pay attention to what Inprise has been delivering for the past year.
B2B e-commerce is an application of Java and XML technology. That puts Inprise squarely in the center of this revolution: Inprise provides the tools that enable those technologies and empower software engineers to build out the software infrastructure of the Internet.
The transition from old economy information sytems to new economy systems has only started to run. I suspect Oracle will push developers strongly toward Inprise technology for deploying e-commerce solutions with the next release. It's complex technology and a monumental effort to get it right but they have succeeded. The upside to that effort is that the astronomical barrier to entry works in their favor.
Inprise is cash-rich, profitable and poised for success. I should add that a thick cloud currently hangs over Inprise. Money-losing Corel Corporation -- sellers of 80's office bloatware that was acquired from Novell -- somehow managed to convince the Inprise board to merge.
They used an artificially inflated stock price pumped up with Linux hype and moved quickly. The problem is anybody can distribute Linux and that would include Inprise. There was no real value in Corel Linux as there are dozens of other competing distributions and more on the way.
When it was discovered that Corel was essentially broke with dwindling revenues and growing expenses, the deal was all but called off -- at least as it stands. I believe it is merely a formality and that Inprise shareholders will vote no to a merger. The alternative is to become a temporary life-support system for Corel until they drain Inprise's coffers and erase their credibility.
Needless to say, these are my own personal opinions and you are free to disagree with any of it provided any challenge is backed up with rationale arguments. A number of people have taken to personalizing the issue as a means of deflecting attention away from the real issues. Moreover, it is my personal belief that "plants" are posting on the Corel thread defending the company and its CEO in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. A CEO, I should add, that is facing charges of illegal insider trading and that has yet to go to a jury. |
