"Virtually every open-source company (including Red Hat [Inc.]) will eventually be acquired by a big proprietary software company," predicts open-standards activist and computer book publisher Tim O'Reilly. But Matt Asay, vice president of business development at open-source enterprise content management vendor Alfresco Software Inc., posits that O'Reilly misses the true value of open source.
Asay argues that software code and intellectual property aren't what are important anymore. Rather, it's the services that open-source software enables that represent the "natural state" of the software industry. This runs counter to to what traditional software developers believe, but Asay acknowledges that these companies might make meals of some open-source vendors for awhile to learn the ropes of the new world.
There are some hurdles, though, in part due to the tricky licensing issues that can arise when acquiring open-source code. Eventually, customer needs will win out, and open source and software as a service will become the norm, Asay concludes. Maybe so, but whether Alfresco and its brethren will survive independently until this time is another question. —Olaf de Senerpont Domis
Go to Aug. 15 post from CNet News Blog
See March 16 story from TheDeal.com
Tags: software, acquisition, m&a, mergers
Continue reading below
