Bravura Balancing Act
One day in June, Alfred Chuang woke up before dawn to watch Larry Ellison announce on television Oracle Corp.'s hostile bid for PeopleSoft Inc. Then Mr. Chuang breathed a sigh of relief and went back to sleep. The chief executive of BEA Systems Inc., and many others, had expected Mr. Ellison to come after him.
Mr. Chuang can't rest easily, however. Mr. Ellison says his quest to consolidate the software industry around Oracle, where he is CEO, is just beginning, and BEA is near the top of his shopping list. Mr. Ellison has repeatedly said he is interested in buying the company, but with a $5.3 billion market value, he told Wall Street analysts recently, "BEA is very expensive right now."
With Mr. Chuang trying hard to keep it that way, the eight-year-old San Jose, Calif., company has become a test case for two visions of the software industry. BEA rode the Web wave to quickly reach $1 billion in annual revenue, albeit just before sales started sliding in 2001. It survived the deep slump in technology spending only to find itself smack in the strategic paths of International Business Machines Corp. and Microsoft Corp., as well as Oracle.
What makes BEA important is its strong position in the market for "application servers," software packages that companies use to let customers, partners and employees make purchases, track orders and review accounts using their Web browsers. Web users who fill a "shopping cart" at Amazon.com, or track a package sent via Federal Express, are connecting to one of BEA's application servers.
As corporations increasingly adopt Web technology for various internal functions, application servers have become a key part of their software infrastructure -- and of the product lines of the software industry's giants. IBM, with nearly 10,000 software salespeople to BEA's 580, has caught up, and according to some estimates, surpassed BEA in market share.
Oracle's Mr. Ellison believes niche companies like BEA and PeopleSoft are relics of Silicon Valley's go-go past, which he says produced too many software companies. He says customers want to deal with fewer software suppliers.
Mr. Chuang agrees the industry is consolidating. But he says he has no interest in being acquired. "You don't do all this stuff just to say, 'I want to be an acquisition target,' " he says. "If we keep doing what we're doing, it's a really great thing for the shareholders. Why do people want to bail out when there's a good thing coming?"
Mr. Chuang backed up his bluster a bit last week when BEA reported that earnings for the fiscal second quarter ended July 31 rose 28% from a year earlier to $25.9 million on revenue of $245 million, at the high end of the company's earlier guidance.
More significantly, new software-license fees, the most closely watched indicator of business momentum, reversed a seven-quarter slide and increased 3%, to $127.4 million. The company also launched a new version of its flagship product, WebLogic 8.1, which Mr. Chuang claims gives BEA a technology lead over IBM and Microsoft and helps information-technology managers get their new software applications up and running more quickly.
That has converted some, but not all, of those who have doubted BEA's viability. Ted Schadler, an analyst with Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass., last year told clients that BEA, while strong technologically, would struggle to compete with IBM and Microsoft. Now, he says, "I believe BEA will be the little engine that could. I wouldn't at this point write BEA off as an independent."
Mr. Chuang, who will be 42 years old next week, was born in Hong Kong and grew up in the Canadian province of Ontario. He co-founded BEA in 1995 with two partners; the three had all worked for Sun Microsystems Inc. The company's early success, based on a transactions-processing technology called Tuxedo that was acquired from Novell Inc., had nothing to do with the Internet. After the company's initial public offering in 1997, Mr. Chuang, then chief technology officer, realized BEA had no way to grow beyond its revenue of less than $200 million a year.
So he went shopping. The success of Mr. Chuang's 1998 purchase of WebLogic Inc., one of dozens of start-ups making application servers, spurred jokes that BEA stood for Built Entirely on Acquisitions. (In fact, the name is based on the first names of co-founders Bill Coleman and Ed Scott, along with Mr. Chuang.) BEA snared customers by letting developers download its software free in order to let them develop their applications -- "the crack model for software distribution," jokes Scott Dietzen, BEA's chief technology officer. When companies wanted to deploy the new applications on the Internet, BEA minted money as customers needed to pay for more licenses to keep up with the increasing traffic.
Mr. Chuang says that helped BEA weather the tech downturn better than most software companies, since Web traffic, and thus demand for application servers, didn't decline with the stock market. Instead, as corporations rushed to cut costs, they increasingly moved functions to the Web. "I could say it's management brilliance, that we created a model for good times and bad times," Mr. Chuang says. "But it was really the only way we could get into the market."
By 2001, the year Mr. Chuang took over BEA's top job, IBM was eroding BEA's early market-share lead by bundling application servers into its WebSphere software package; Microsoft's ".Net" Web strategy, which included software tools for building Web applications, was luring some developers away from BEA; and Oracle was making a push by integrating an application server with its database technology.
As it happened, some of the architects of Microsoft's success, who had left to form a start-up, were available. Adam Bosworth, who had been responsible for many of Microsoft's easy-to-use tools, re-engineered BEA's technology so it integrates all of a company's applications.
That has caused sniping between IBM and BEA. Paraic Sweeney, vice president of marketing for IBM's WebSphere line, dismisses BEA's latest product release: "It's a reaction to the market momentum that we've got."
Mr. Chuang warns customers and partners that IBM wants to become "the Wal-Mart of the IT [information-technology] market" and has proposed a "coalition" to stop Big Blue's juggernaut. The argument works with customers like Geoff Penney, chief information officer at Charles Schwab Corp., which relies on both BEA and IBM. "We try not to get into a place where we are dependent on a single vendor," Mr. Penney says.
Oracle, which has tried for several years to gain a significant share of the application-server market, says it is making headway against both IBM and BEA by integrating the technology with its market-leading database software. Oracle Senior Vice President Thomas Kurian says that there have been discussions about acquiring BEA but that it is BEA's customers, not its technology, that Oracle wants.
Still, Oracle executives say the company has the capacity to pursue additional deals even while Oracle waits for federal antitrust regulators to complete their review of its bid for PeopleSoft late this year. The total cost of Oracle's $19.50-a-share bid has increased to $7.3 billion following PeopleSoft's successful acquisition of J.D. Edwards & Co. last month, and Oracle will have to overcome a host of takeover defenses. Oracle says it remains committed to completing the deal.
BEA Systems力图挫败甲骨文收购企图
今年六月的某一天，BEA Systems Inc.的首席执行长庄思浩(Alfred Chuang)天刚蒙蒙亮就醒了过来，收看了拉里．埃利森(Larry Ellison)就甲骨文公司(Oracle Corp., ORCL)敌意收购仁科(PeopleSoft Inc., PSFT)一事发表的电视声明。随后庄思浩松了一口气，回到床上接著睡了。包括庄思浩在内的许多人此前都预计，埃利森将追逐BEA这个收购目标。
但庄思浩仍难以入眠，因为甲骨文首席执行长埃利森已放言声称，甲骨文在软件业的并购行动才刚刚迈出第一步，而BEA很可能是下一个收购目标。埃利森一再表示出对收购BEA的兴趣，但他近来对华尔街分析师说，以其高达53亿美元的市值，BEA的价格现在太贵了。
BEA Systems总部位于加州圣荷塞，刚刚诞生8年。但是在庄思浩的艰苦努力之下，它实现了软件行业的两大梦想，成为这个行业中的典范。在网络大潮中，BEA的年收入迅速达到10亿美元，成为其中的弄潮儿，不过从2001年开始其销售额就开始一路下滑。BEA终于挺过了企业信息技术支出大幅滑坡的难关，但却发现自己已经成为国际商业机器公司(International Business Machines Corp., IBM)、微软(Microsoft Corp.)及甲骨文收购战略的标靶。
是什么使得BEA显得如此重要？原来是它在应用伺服器市场中举足轻重的地位，企业正是利用这种软件包使客户、夥伴及雇主进行网络采购、追踪订单及审理帐目。那些在亚马逊公司(Amazon.com)网站购物、或追踪通过联邦快递公司(Federal Express)递送包裹的用户都需要与BEA的某个应用伺服器相连。
由于越来越多的公司利用网络技术行使内部功能，应用伺服器已成为软件基础设施和软件行业巨头产品的一个关键部分。拥有将近1万名软件销售人员（BEA只有区区580人）的IBM已经迎头赶上；而且，根据一些估算，IBM的市场占有率已领先于BEA。
甲骨文首席执行长埃利森相信，在盛产软件公司的矽谷，BEA和仁科(PeopleSoft)早已成为明日黄花。他说，客户希望与之打交道的软件供应商越少越好。
庄思浩认同这种软件行业正在不断整合的看法。但他说，他绝对无意成为收购对象。BEA上周公布的收益报告也给庄思浩带来了无声的支持。BEA宣布，截至7月31日的第二财政季度，公司净利润较上年同期增长28%至2,590万美元，收入为2.45亿美元，处于先前预期区间的高端。
更具有重大意义的是，新的软件许可费收入这一最受关注的商业动能指标扭转了连续七个季度的下滑势头，增长了3%，达到1.274亿美元。该公司还推出了新的主打产品WebLogic 8.1。庄思浩说，它能够给BEA带来足以领先IBM和微软的技术优势，帮助信息技术经理更迅速地构筑和运行软件应用产品。
这使得部分原先对BEA的生存能力持怀疑态度的人转变了看法。Forrester Research Inc.驻坎布里奇的分析师泰德．沙德勒(Ted Schadler)去年告诉客户，BEA虽然在技术方面出类拔萃，可若要与IBM和微软分庭抗礼依然困难重重。但现在他认为，BEA可以与这些公司一较高下了。
下周就是庄思浩的42岁生日。他出生在香港，在加拿大安大略省长大。1995年，他和两个曾经一同在Sun电子计算机公司(Sun Microsystems Inc., SUNW, 又名：升阳微电脑)工作的合作夥伴共同创建了BEA。一种被称为Tuxedo的交易处理技术给该公司带来了最初的成功。这种技术与互联网没有任何关系，是由BEA从Novell Inc.那里收购的。1997年BEA进行首次公开募股之后，当时还是首席技术长的庄思浩意识到，年收入不足2亿美元的BEA已经没有发展的空间。
因此，他开始四处寻找收购对象。1998年成功收购制造应用伺服器的新兴公司WebLogic Inc.之后，人们笑传BEA是'通过收购建立大业'(Built Entirely on Acquisitions)的缩写。而事实上，BEA这个名称由比尔．柯曼(Bill Coleman)和埃德．斯科特(Ed Scott)及庄思浩这三个联合创始人姓名的首字字母组成的。BEA的首席技术长斯科特．迪特森(Scott Dietzen)说，BEA准许开发人员免费下载其软件，以便让他们开发自己的应用产品，用这种方式吸引客户。
庄思浩指出，与绝大多数软件公司相比，BEA更好地经受住了科技业下滑的考验，其中上述吸引客户的方式功不可没。因为网络流量并没有像股市行情那样一泻千里，而网络流量与应用伺服器的需求密切相关。
事实上，伴随公司忙于削减成本，越来越多的企业将更多的功能转移到网上。庄思浩说，可以说这是管理智慧的结晶，公司的经营模式适用于任何市场状况。不过事实上，想要打入市场也的确别无他途。
到2001年庄思浩接任首席执行长一职时，IBM已经通过将应用伺服器与WebSphere套装软件捆绑销售，开始侵蚀BEA的市场占有率。借助包括建立网络应用产品等软件工具的.Net网络战略，微软也从BEA那里挖走了一些开发商。而甲骨文则通过将应用伺服器与其数据库技术相整合而大行其道。
帮助微软成就大业的一些网络工程师来得正是时候。他们离开微软，创建起了自己的新兴企业。曾经负责微软的一些易于使用的软件工具的亚当．博斯沃茨(Adam Bosworth)重新设计了BEA的技术，以使其能够与公司所有的应用软件整合为一体。
庄思浩提醒客户，也告知合作夥伴，IBM的野心是成为信息技术市场的巨擎。他提议组建联盟，阻止蓝色巨人主宰技术行业。这种理论得到了嘉信理财(Charles Schwab Corp.)首席信息长乔夫．潘尼(Geoff Penney)这样的客户的认同。他们既依赖BEA，也购买IBM的服务。潘尼说，我们尽量避免只依赖一个供应商。
甲骨文几年以来一直在设法赢得更多的应用伺服器市场。该公司称，通过将其技术与领先市场的数据库软件相互整合，该公司正在大跨步前进。甲骨文的资深副总裁托马斯．克里安(Thomas Kurian)说，有过一些收购BEA的讨论，但甲骨文想要的是BEA的客户而非其技术产品。
不过，在等待联邦反垄断监管机构于今年晚些时候完成对仁科的收购调查结束的同时，甲骨文依然表示该公司有能力寻求其他的收购机会。甲骨文表示依然致力完成收购的计划。
