194899 Resource 125361 134448 200444 1200517524624 1214505983703 Controlled Smooth Sailing for Oracle

Acquisition of BEA Systems Bodes Well for Strategic M&A in 2008

The financial buyers have stepped back and the stock market has dropped 20% from its late-summer 52-week highs, giving way for Oracle (ORCL) to offer $19.375 cash per share for BEA Systems (BEAS), a 24% one-day premium. This is Oracle’s second approach to BEA; the first was on October 12, 2007 when Oracle offered $17/share and BEA countered with a $21/share proposal, which ORCL walked away from. Oracle President and Chief Financial Officer <a title="Oracle to Acquire BEA Systems" href="http://www.oracle.com/corporate/press/2008_jan/bea.html" target="_blank">Safra Catz noted</a> that “this deal (should) be accretive to Oracle's earnings by at least 1-2 cents on a non-GAAP basis in its first full year after closing." The activist investor Carl Icahn, who currently owns 13% of BEAS, said in a statement this morning, "This transaction is an excellent example of the great results that can be achieved for all constituencies when the shareholder activist is able to work cooperatively with management." An apparent win/win transaction for both parties bodes well for more strategic M&A to be navigated in 2008, in spite of choppy economic waters. 10 application/xml false BEA Systems enterprise application software Oracle <embed pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer" src="http://www.yourminis.com/Dir/GetContainer.api?uri=yourminis/yourminis/mini:stocks" FlashVars="symbols=ORCL%2CBEAS&height=218&xheight=228&xwidth=230&width=220&uri=yourminis%2Fyourminis%2Fmini%3Astocks&swfurl=%2Fwidget%5Fstocks%2Eswf&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowScriptAccess="always" wmode="transparent" width="230" height="228"></embed> Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; InfoPath.1) 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 fbartolomey 208.82.213.22 false true false false true 125361 blog blogsite/UpdataAdvisors/web