Acquisition Alert: Phyaura, LLC – An Open Source HIT Firm Acquires EHR Live. Phyaura, LLC, a healthcare technology firm, has acquired EHR Live, LLC, a West Palm Beach company that shares PHYAURA’s focus on developing ‘open source’ Electronic Health Records (EHR) solutions in full compliance with government regulations. “With this acquisition, PHYAURA increases its user base and provides current EHR Live clients access to our complete ‘meaningful use’ software, PHYAURA EHR v.4.0,” said Jude A. Pierre, M.D., Managing Partner, Phyaura, LLC. “Our EHR system was created by physicians for physicians and is cost effective as there is no software to purchase. Use of the service and all associated upgrades may be accessed via the web for free,” Pierre added.
PHYAURA’s web based EHR has a fully integrated, user friendly practice management system and is available to all EHR Live clients without interruption of services. Chris Lucena, M.B.A. and president of EHR Live, will join PHYAURA’s team as Chief Technology Officer. Open Source Gets Another Hit? OpenFOAM acquired by SGI. One of the driving forces behind HPC clusters is the open source or open community. I said that multiple time before. In particular, the existence of open source applications helps extending the reach of HPC to more places and creates the community to progress the development and take advantage of higher scaling and new hardware products.
One of the more interesting open source applications is or was OpenFOAM. OpenFOAM is computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulation software that has become a good alternative to the commercial solution, and a good tool for universities research activities. Couple of weeks ago, OpenFOAM was acquired by SGI and the entire OpenCFD team has joined SGI as full-time employees.
SGI said that they would provide “the market's first fully integrated CFD solution, where all the hardware and software work together” which is the same concept we saw in other software-hardware acquisitions. BPM Software Vendor Buying Spree continues with Savvion being acquired by Progress Software Corporation | Open Source Workflow & BPM Blog. 0inShare By brian | January 11, 2010 | Open Source The BPM land grab continues. For those that follow me on EbizQ and other sites, you might remember that I was probably the first in the BPM and Workflow Industry to predict that the IBM acquisition of Lombardi would set off a small BPM Software and Workflow Software Vendor buying frenzy in 2010 as other large software vendors look to stake claims in the deservedly hyped BPM/Workflow space (See my original prediction here). Of course, I drink my own coolade, I just didn’t think it was this highly concentrated.
It is an understatement to say that both VCs and Industry Execs have a herd mentality. So, what does this second major BPM company acquisition announcement in less than 30 days mean? I’m sure in the next couple of days we will get some good clarity on Savvion’s exact numbers. So, here is my initial conclusion and comparison of the back to back acquisitions. This brings me to my next blog (coming in the next few days!)
Open source software acquisition multiples settling back to earth - IT Investment Research. Red Hat (RHAT) has re-established the multiple for acquiring so-called open source software (OSS) companies with its September 4, 2008 acquisition of Qumranet. In the process, it looks like the price to acquire an open source company is becoming more like the cost of acquiring any other small, hot software company. This further confirms the way open source has merged into the software industry in general. (I use the words “so-called” to modify open source because from a market research perspective, there really is no such thing as an OSS company.
Open source companies are a figment of so-called open source company PR folks.) I have been following the multiple trend primarily since Red Hat’s acquisition of JBoss in April 2006 at what might have turned out to be as high as 100 times revenue. With the Red Hat/Qumranet acquisition, the multiple appears to be down to about 5x annual revenue.
Apache makes its first $420 million | The Open Road. Others and I have made much of VMware's acquisition of SpringSource for $420 million, but one crucial point has been overlooked: this is the first big acquisition of a company that depends on the Apache license. Yes, we've seen smaller acquisitions of open-source companies that rely on Apache-style licensing. IBM acquired Gluecode (Geronimo project), SpringSource bought Covalent (Tomcat), Oracle acquired Sleepycat (Sleepycat, BSD license), and there have likely been others that I'm simply not remembering. But the big, head-turning deals? GNU General Public License (GPL). Every one of them. Nearly every other big open-source acquisition, from JBoss ($350 million) to MySQL ($1 billion) to XenSource ($500 million), has involved the GPL.
Even Zimbra ($350 million), while not GPL, fits the mold because it used an attribution clause with an MPL license that was designed to accomplish GPL-esque ambitions. The GPL has been prominent for good reason. IBM already does this. Yahoo! finally using Zimbra | The Open Road. A little over a year ago Yahoo! Acquired open-source messaging company Zimbra for $350 million, but it's only now starting to launch products based on Zimbra's technology. As All Things Digital reports, Yahoo! Just updated its calendar service after nearly a decade, and is using Zimbra to power it: The new Yahoo calendar is built on the Zimbra platform, which uses Ajax functionality in its online calendars and iCalendar (iCal) and CalDAV3 standards. That makes it interoperable with other online calendar services, including those from Mozilla, Apple, Microsoft, Time Warner's AOL and Google.
It's great to see Zimbra being put to good use, but it begs the question as to what Yahoo! ' When Yahoo! Yahoo is aiming to create a more open platform, using APIs and mashups across multiple Yahoo properties (e.g. So, is this move with the calendar the first of many? Red Hat acquires way into Windows game | The Open Road. Just four days after Red Hat closed its second quarter, the company has announced the acquisition of Qumranet , an open-source virtualization company, positioning the open-source leader to close many more successful quarters to come. Red Hat acquired Qumranet for $107 million in cash , according to the company, which is surprising, given Qumranet's comparative lack of revenue, having only released its product in September of 2007. Such is the importance of virtualization.
I'd argue that Qumranet was worth the hefty multiple. In a statement, Red Hat claims that it "can now deliver what virtualization-only vendors cannot: a comprehensive solution integrated with the operating system, which can drive down IT costs while simultaneously enhancing the flexibility and responsiveness of IT infrastructure. " Nice, but the the more interesting news embedded in the Qumranet acquisition is the Windows management technology that comes with it: Sun to fork out $1 billion for open-source firm MySQL | News Blogs. Sun Microsystems will plunk down $1 billion to buy MySQL, the maker of a popular open-source database. Sun said Wednesday that it will pay about $800 million in cash for MySQL's privately held stock and will assume about $200 million worth of options. MySQL CEO Marten Mickos will join Sun's senior executive team after the transaction closes. The acquisition is a bold move for Sun, which has embraced open-source software and development practices in an effort to garner more revenue from its software business.
Until now, it has sold support services for a competing open-source database, PostgreSQL. Company executives said they will continue to support PostgreSQL and continue to partner with database giant Oracle. MySQL, founded in 1995, is one of the most successful open-source companies. Mickos had previously said that the company intended to go public rather than be acquired. "This is really about one thing: reaffirming Sun's position at the center of the Web," Schwartz said. Red Hat scoops up JBoss. Linux distributor Red Hat said on Monday that it has signed an agreement to buy open-source company JBoss for at least $350 million, a move that expands Red Hat's product line and adds to its growth potential. The transaction involves 40 percent cash and 60 percent Red Hat stock, with an additional $70 million owed, subject to financial performance.
Red Hat said the deal, which is expected to close next month, will add to the Raleigh, N.C. -based company's earnings next year. Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik said combining Red Hat and JBoss will enable the company to provide corporate customers with a more complete "open-source stack" of software. "The planned acquisition reinforces the seriousness of our commitment to developers and customers to provide an integrated development platform of tools and services based on the collaborative power of open source," Szulik said in a conference call Monday with financial analysts. Open Source Software Company Talend Raises $34M; Acquires Sopera. Talend, a global provider of open source data solutions, has raised $34 million in new funding led by Silver Lake Sumeru, with existing investors Balderton Capital and IdInvest Partners participating.
This brings Talend’s total funding to over $60 million. Talend develops a range of open source data integration, data quality and master data management (MDM) solutions for the enterprise. Talend chooses to take an open approach by publishing the code of its core and base modules under a GPL license, offering the developer community the ability to improve the product and make enhancements that can benefit everyone. The company also acquired Sopera, a provider of open source SOA and middleware platforms. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Earlier this year, Talend said its flagship open source data solutions have been downloaded more than seven million times and reported that its paying customer base grew 140% to well over 1,000 customers in 2009. Open-source acquisitions: What's the holdup? | Software, Interrupted. Trying to figure out a company's acquisition strategy is often complex. Some companies have very purposeful approaches to scoping out companies, products, and market segments, while others' approaches are much more scattershot. Acquisitions of open-source companies have been a big topic of conversation ever since Red Hat acquired JBoss in April 2006. Many of us in the software industry thought that one or two large companies would snap up and consolidate several open-source companies in attempt to offer a complete open-source stack. But an open-source consolidator has yet to materialize. In recent conversations with a number of open-source executives, it's come to light that many potential acquirers are less attracted to open-source companies that require more investment before generating revenue.
While a focus on the bottom line makes sense, product investment comes from many angles, not the least of which are users and developers, key drivers in VMware's acquisition of SpringSource.