SAP Agreement to Resell Livelink the First Step in the Acquisition Tango?

Interesting announcement earlier this week from Open Text and SAP. It looks like these two long-time partners have decided to move a bit closer together and have signed a formal agreement for SAP to resell Open Text’s flagship Livelink product.

This could just be part of the process that companies go through when trying to expand their markets or it could be somthing more. There have been been persistent rumors that Open Text’s acquisition of Hummingbird has opened the door for Open Text to themselves become a takeover target (Russ Stalters has blogged about it and CBR Online has an opinion as well).

Seems to me that SAP and Open Text have been dating for a while and have decided to move in together as they figure out if they really are compatible for marriage. Will we be hearing wedding bells in the not-too-distant future?

3 Responses to “SAP Agreement to Resell Livelink the First Step in the Acquisition Tango?”

  1. russ stalters, on May 4th, 2007 at 1:48 pm Said:

    I agee completely agree. Also really like your Blog.

  2. Brian Edwards, on May 11th, 2007 at 12:47 am Said:

    You might also notice that Open Text and SAP have a two-decade old partnership. Seems like they’ve been dating for a long time without any bells chiming.

    Unlike FileNet, which everyone knew was shopping itself around, Open Text has not been on the block and the speculation here and there hasn’t amounted to anything.

    Here’s an idea: instead of factless speculation, how about writing about how a strong independent ECM player might in fact be a good thing. What think?

  3. Greg Clark, on May 11th, 2007 at 4:16 pm Said:

    Hi Brian,

    Thanks for your comments. I completely agree that a strong independed ECM vendor is a good thing. This is a vibrant and growing market that Open Text does a very good job of satsifying the needs of their ECM customers. My take on this situation is that given the recent round of consolidation, and Microsoft’s growing presence in the ECM space, I expect there’s a fear that Open Text might just get lost in the shuffle if they stay independent. There has certainly been speculation elsewhere that one of the drivers behind their recent acquisitions has been to make them attractive to others as an acquisition target (see the links in the original blog post). I’ve just put two and two together and it seems to me that these two fit nicely together. I could be completely wrong of course; only time will tell if it’s SAP, HP, someone else or no one at all.

    Again, thanks for your comments, hope you enjoy the blog.

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