Continue reading Oracle blinks on Sun deal

Oracle blinks on Sun deal originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Open source software continues its torrid pace. In fact, according to a report from the 451 Group, the sector saw its biggest quarter for venture funding -- hitting $203.75 million, which is up from $100.4 million in the same period a year ago.

Why the interest? Well, I had a chance to interview Matthew Aslett, who is an analyst of enterprise software at the 451 Group:

Your take on the focus on open source?

VCs are interested in open source vendors because the open source development and distribution models reduce start-up costs and lower the barriers to entry. Some VCs have also cited increased code quality as a reason for investing in open source as the model enables a broader range of product testing and rapid innovation. There are a number of VCs that are sold on the open source model, and some have even stated that they would only consider investing in a software vendor if it was using and producing open source. Open source vendor revenues are lower than more established traditional rivals today, but most vendors are still in their infancy. Recent mergers and acquisitions involving open source vendors such as Zimbra, JBoss and MySQL have proved that the returns are there and are likely to encourage more VCs to look favorably on open source.

Continue reading Interview: Open source grabs more and more funding

Interview: Open source grabs more and more funding originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 12 Apr 2008 18:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Last year, there was quite a bit of consolidation in the software sector, such as from Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and even SAP (NYSE: SAP).

And, yes the dealmaking is continuing into 2008. For example, this week, Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) announced it is shelling out $1 billion for MySQL, which develops an open source database.

Well, I had a chance to interview Raven Zachary, who is the Research Director of Open Source at the 451 Group:

Why the interest in open source? What is the business model -- in light of the "free" part?

The interest in open source has been driven by end-user demand. As more open source (from operating systems to web servers to middleware to data integration to databases and beyond) is used by end-user organizations, there is an opportunity for monetization around open source. Back in 2004, we saw the beginning of a new wave on open source venture funding that has continued, peaking in 2006, but still at $300m+ per year. As this new wave of commercial open source companies build out a customer base, they become attractive targets for larger IT vendors.

Continue reading BloggingStocks Interview: Expert shows why Sun spent $1 billion on free software

BloggingStocks Interview: Expert shows why Sun spent $1 billion on free software originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Sun Microsystems buys MySQL database developer

Sun Microsystems buys MySQL database developer originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 16 Jan 2008 10:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.