Funny, over the past several weeks I've had long conversations with people in both companies, telling them I thought this is exactly what needed to happen. So I never expected it to actually come about <g>, particularly this quickly.
With this purchase, Pick Systems consolidates the entire "native" Pick (Multivalue) database environment marketplace under one roof, and lets them move the business in any direction they choose - something they can certainly manage better than GA did (if only because they are free of the license fees and contractual restrictions that GA faced in doing the same thing). (Pick is privately held, BTW.)
GA gets a good chunk of change, and reinvents itself as a "mean, lean" e-commerce enabler. But there are potential pitfalls here, which I don't know the answers to as of yet:
- Did they give up any engineering talent to Pick as part of the sale? Some of the pure software engineering staff, as opposed to QA or support or hardware assembly people, was dedicated exclusively to the Multivalue products (like mvBase). Letting them go wouldn't necessarily hurt the middleware initiative - but it would be interesting to know nonetheless, especially given that GA's engineering ranks weren't huge to start with (less than 25 people, even including the ones in Canada, I'd guess) there's not a lot of fat to trim.
- Did they give up the entire support and service revenue stream associated with the database biz? In the past, this was a cash cow, sustaining the company with its good margins and low capital costs. Who's going to get the revenue and customer control associated with this part of the company? If it all went to Pick, lock stock and barrel (as I'd suspect), then GA's truly committed to its new business strategy, on the high wire without its usual net. That's not necessarily bad (it will help them focus), but it means the company's execution over the next quarter is crucial.
I'll make some calls and report back. Anyone else with good information, please let us know.
-Rose- |
