There was further consolidation in the business
intelligence software arena last week as Hyperion Solutions agreed
to buy query and reporting tools maker Brio Software.
The deal between Hyperion and Brio came just days after Business
Objects had agreed to acquire Crystal Decisions.
Analysts said the consolidation moves were likely to accelerate
as suppliers wanted more complete suites of data analysis products,
partly to fend off growing competition from Microsoft.
Such mergers can both help and hurt corporate users, said
Current Analysis analyst Mike Schiff. Although the acquisitions may
give users a single supplier to deal with in areas such as product
support, they could reduce customers' bargaining power by limiting
their ability to shop around.
Schiff added that after buyouts, suppliers typically weed out
the less successful products they have acquired, which could affect
the companies that depend on those technologies.
John Olsen, president and chief operating officer at Business
Objects, said there were no plans to phase out any applications or
to delay rollouts of new products. He noted that Crystal Decisions'
tools are used to design reports for end users, whereas Business
Objects' applications are tailored for power users who want to
format their own queries and do extensive slicing and dicing of
data.
A spokeswoman for Hyperion said that the company will disclose
more information about its product plans in the coming weeks,
although she noted that Hyperion's own applications will remain
intact. However, Hyperion did say that it was dropping a reseller
deal with Crystal Decisions and will immediately start offering
Brio's tools.
Schiff said that Brio, which last week reported a first-quarter
loss of $2.1m on revenue of $24.8m, was financially troubled and in
need of rescue. Crystal Decisions is in much better financial
shape, he noted.
Marc L Songini writes for
Computerworld