Quarterly revenue up 44%, subscription revenue up 54% from a year ago, and net profits nearly doubles... If that doesn't show the success of the Linux OS and open source subscription services, what does ?
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http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/051221/20051221005601.html
In other news, IBM added Red Hat and Novell to its strategic Alliance Program, putting them at the same level as Cisco, Microsoft and SAP.
Network and systems monitoring and management will become even more important in tomorrow's service-oriented and software-as-a-service world than it already is today. IBM plans to plug the network-level monitoring gap in its Tivoli offering by acquiring Micromuse in a $865 million cash deal. Last year, CA had already acquired Concord and Aprisma to beef up its network monitoring and performance management offering. With the acquisition of Wily Technology in a $375 million cash deal, CA moves in to the application performance management market.
While both deals plug holes in their offering, we expect the Micromuse acquisition to bring in bigger customers for IBM, as Micromuse's solutions are used by big companies such as Commerce Bank, General Electric, Telefonica, and UBS. We also expect acquisition pressure to mount on Mercury, Quest, BMC or Cast Software as application management becomes more important.