Mergers Rock Retailing Landscape

The IT landscape continues to consolidate at a rapid pace. Yesterday, Oracle announced it was acquiring Sun Microsystems for a tidy $7.4 billion. This move strengthens Oracle's position as the dominant leader in IT acquisitions.

Over the past five years, retail IT giants Oracle, SAP and JDA have snapped up dozens of software companies that had strong footholds in the retail industry. This rapid transition has presented retailers with major challenges as well as the promise of significant benefits.

Acquiring companies like Oracle and others face significant challenges of integrating disparate systems, building a unified product line and creating a smooth transition for all affected clients.

When mergers happen, retailers become concerned about product support, technology roadmap plans and fear that previously announced initiatives will be killed.

How significant has merger-mania affected the retail landscape? Here's a list of companies that have been swallowed up over the past five years.

Acquired Companies/Acquirer

360 Commerce (Oracle)
Apropos Retail (CRS Retail)
Armature (Lawson)

Ascential Software (IBM)
BEA (Oracle)
Blue Cube (RedPrairie)
Blue Martini (Escalate)
Business Objects (SAP)
Cognos (IBM)
Commercialware (Micros Systems)
Connect 3 Systems (DemandTec)
CRS Retail Systems (Epicor)
Datavantage (Micros Systems)
Ecometry (Escalate Retail)
Evant (Manhattan Associates)

Fry (Micros Systems)
GERS Retail Systems (Escalate)
G-Log (Oracle)
Handheld Products (Honeywell)
Hyperion (Oracle)

Intentia (Lawson)
JD Edwards (Oracle)
Khimetrics (SAP)
Manugistics (JDA)
NSB Group (Epicor)
Marketmax (SAS)
Metrologic Instruments (Honeywell)
PeopleSoft (Oracle)
ProfitLogic (Oracle)
ProClarity (Microsoft)
QRS (Inovis)
Retek (Oracle)
Siebel (Oracle)
seeBeyond (Sun)
Stellent (Oracle)
StorePerform (RedPrairie)
Symbol Technologies (Motorola)
TempoSoft (Oracle)
Timera (JDA)
Triversity (SAP)
Workbrain (Infor)
Yantra (Sterling Commerce)