IBM announced this morning that they are picking up Cognos for $5 billion. This is the third huge business intelligence acquisition this year, following SAP’s acquisition of Business Objects for $6.8 billion and Oracle’s buying Hyperion Solutions for $3.3 billion.

These are interesting deals from the energy perspective in that all three BI vendors have significant energy practices, and, in the case of each, give the acquiring company a larger presence in the industry. That being said, given the breath of the products and services that SAP, Oracle and IBM provide, it could be easily argued that on an incremental basis, these three aren’t really gaining a whole lot. It’s really more about defending their positions and trying to ultimately “own” the customer.

I’m asked at least once a week if and when SAP or Oracle is going to buy an ETRM vendor. I don’t think it's going to happen. Why? Unfortunately I don’t have the time this morning to give a complete answer, but it really comes down to lack of market mass by any of the vendors. None of the “horizontal” ETRM vendors controls enough of the market to be considered “the” leader of what is (in comparison to ERP or even BI) a very specialized and ultimately small market. However, if a deal is to be done by SAP or Oracle in ETRM, it will, in my opinion, be with a vendor that can demonstrate leadership in an energy vertical, such as utilities.

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