For years, there have been rumors that Oracle, Inc. (Nasdaq: ORCL) would buy up BEA Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: BEAS).

And, it's finally coming true; that is, Oracle is making a $6.7 bid for the meandering software company.

No doubt, the deal is a good fit. BEA has a strong customer base - and solid technology (especially with middleware). Besides, Oracle likes to buy recurring maintenance revenues (which tends to be fairly resilient). I also think there will be lots of opportunities to slash costs and get rid of some product lines.

However, the problem is that BEA is likely to put up a fight. In fact, I suspect BEA's business will deteriorate as customers get scarred. After all, this happened when Oracle bought PeopleSoft.

So, as time goes by, I think we can hear some interesting smash-mouth from both parties.

Also, if you want to see other recent acquisitions, click here.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

Oracle beats up on BEA originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 12 Oct 2007 18:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.