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Crystal Decisions Acquisition: BI Tool Consolidation Continues

The latest large acquisition in the BI market is Business Objects' purchase of Crystal Decisions. This is a consolidation of two large players and that may push the combined company to the #1 slot in the BI market [I have not checked out the market share and revenue numbers yet].

I wonder about culture clash as the companies merge operations. BOb is a French company, while Crystal is based in San Jose. There's also fear that work in San Jose may be shifted out, further damaging the Silicon Valley economy. The tools do overlap a little, but for the most part they serve different segments of the market and come at it with different approaches. Hopefully that means they tweak the products to work better together without dropping many product lines.

It's going to be interesting for all those Crystal customers out there. I'm one, but not in a big way. Fortunately we have two other platforms we can shift to if we need to make a move.

Posted by Mark Wednesday, July 30, 2003 4:15:00 PM | permalink |