BEA has told its employees not to blog about the software maker's impending merger with Oracle. For the record, we stand with BEA management on this one. BEA employees, why go through the trouble of blogging when you can just send us tips and let us take care of it for you? [Docu-Drama]

Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry on Oracle's purchase of BEA Systems: "Contacts tell us that Oracle delayed giving yearly raises to its employees for a quarter to fund the acquisition, which indicates seriousness on Oracle's part to have the acquisition done." [Epicenter]

As we've chronicled, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has conducted a war of words with BEA in his protracted takeover fight, threatening to pull his $17-a-share bid or make a lower offer. BEA's board also said it would accept nothing lower than $21 a share. In the end, BEA sold for $19.375 a share. The Wall Street Journal's explanation? "Don't believe anything anyone says in a takeover fight." That sounds about right.

Oracle has acquired BEA for $8.5 billion. Sun has acquired MySQL for $1 billion. These events are not coincidence. Oracle, which already makes a database, wants to add BEA's software on top of that database. Sun, which makes application servers and other software which connects to databases, wants to slip MySQL in underneath that layer. It all adds up to what geeks and software salesmen call a "stack," or a complete package of interconnecting programs.

BEA Systems will share financials and other internal data with shareholder Carl Icahn in an attempt to convince him that BEA is worth more than the $17 per share that Oracle had offered in an unsolicited takeover bid. BEA has not filed a quarterly report with the SEC in over a year because of an investigation into possible backdating of stock options. [WSJ]

Analysts believe that Oracle will still buy BEA ... eventually. However, since no "white knights" have stepped forward to make competing offers, the consensus is that the $17 offer Oracle initially made was too high a price. Carl Icahn, who owns 15 percent of BEA, wrote "I view your public declaration of a $21-per-share, 'take it or leave it' price as a management entrenchment tactic, not a negotiating technique" in an open letter to the BEA board. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison also seems to have a take-it-or-leave-it attitude towards BEA, having said nothing since Oracle's initial offer expired last week. "Now, both sides will probably stand back and stare at each other for a while," said one analyst. How unexciting.

Oracle has responded to yesterday's statement from BEA Systems that it was worth $21 per share. Larry Ellison's software empire had previously offered $17 per share in an unsolicited takeover bid. Oracle says $21 is an "impossibly high price" and "nobody would seriously consider paying that." Well, we saw that coming. So predictable, that Ellison. We look forward to more passive-aggressive statements issuing forth in the future. [Mercury News]

BEA Systems wants at least $21 a share from Oracle — or anyone else who wants to buy them. That's a mere $4 per share more than Larry Ellison offered. Don't expect Ellison to just say "OK" to this. That would make him look weak and easily manipulated. And it was probably a bad move, since it essentially set a ceiling for what Ellison might offer — any more, and he'd look like he gave in to BEA's demands. We suspect, though, that the deal will get done at some point soon, once the two companies are done playing grabass. Oh, and Oracle rival SAP? Says they don't want BEA. Bitches just jealous. [Mercury News]

Larry Ellison is not used to getting rejected. After being spurned twice by BEA's board, Oracle is now threatening to withdraw its $17-a-share offer for the software maker on Sunday. The stock, however, is still trading above $17. Translation? Wall Street thinks Ellison is bluffing. [Tech trader Daily]

A cautionary tale for BEA, the software company Larry Ellison is trying to add to his Oracle-housed collection: When Oracle's integration teams sweep through, they obliterate all traces of the prior company. Take, for example, Siebel, the sales-management software company Oracle gobbled up in 2005. Writes a tipster:

Using the ticker symbols for Oracle and BEA Systems, a software company Oracle is trying to buy, as Scrabble pieces, venture capitalist Paul Kedrosky manages to spell "corbel," "cabler," and, well, "oracle." But we have a better use for "BEA" and "ORCL" — a new name for the merged companies which summarizes their software's incredible ability to put people to sleep.

"Boracle."

I'm beginning to think that tech mogul Larry Ellison collects software companies the way he buys car, yachts, and tracts of land: Not because he needs another one, but just because he wants to have more. His devilish $6.66 billion offer for BEA Systems is right in character. For years, BEA has been mentioned as an Oracle takeover target. Its core product line, WebLogic, acts as middleware connecting Web servers and databases. Databases, of course, are Oracle's bread and butter. But Oracle already has its own middleware. The attraction here, I suspect, is more BEA's customer base. As he's done with other software purchases like Hyperion and PeopleSoft, Ellison can slash BEA's costs, rein in new development, and collect the cash flow from software-licensing fees. Which may make BEA a more practical bauble than the rest — but a bauble nonetheless.

CONFONZ — Last week saw two ubernerdy conferences for customers of two big software companies in San Francisco. BEA's conference at Moscone West was completely fucking empty. There were a handful of people on each floor, all looking around wondering why there was no one nearby with which to press the flesh. VMware's conference, at Moscone North and South, by contrast, was hopping. With a massive Treasure Island party and no expense spared on the food and conference bag, VMware sucked in the dollars and attention, while BEA sat unloved across the street, with nary a surly teamster to defend it. Hmmm, what's going on here?

Very bad news! Fans of Jon Bon Jovi will have to wait "indefinitely" to read the "never-before-told stories of Jon's experiences as a screen actor, as well as insights into his commitment to social and political causes; and behind-the-scenes descriptions of the songwriting sessions that gave birth to some of the greatest hits of the modern era" in his bio, Believe, which has been "postponed" by Random House imprint Flying Dolphin Press. But it gets worse: The book's unreadiness for publication means that Bon Jovi won't play their hotly anticipated Book Expo America benefit concert (sharing a bill with Amy Grant! Baby, baby!). Still there's hope: if a new headliner can be arranged, the BEA allows that the show might be able to go on. "Our minds are very open," their event planner tells Bookslut. In that case! How about the author of the soon to be classic Out Of Sync? Yes, Lance Bass comes out (har) in October.



BEA Forced To Cancel Bon Jovi Concert [Galleycat]

ConFonz returns with yet another conference report. This time he reports from the BEA Systems enterprise software conference at San Francisco's Moscone Center.