Consolidation continues across the IT channel and the open source software market. The latest example involves Sparxent, a mid-market solutions provider, buying XAware, an open source data integration specialist. XAware is the second open source company to get gobbled up this week. And in both cases, venture capitalists seem to be consolidating their financial bets. Here’s the scoop.
First, a little background. The VAR Guy’s sister site, MSPmentor, noted in August 2008 that Sparxent was buying up managed service providers and VARs that specifically served mid-market customers.
Fast forward to the present and Sparxent is now buying XAware. The deal, according to a press release, will allow Sparxent to:
“significantly simplify the process of integrating software applications in an existing environment and eliminate the need for custom code development. Based in Colorado Springs, Colo., XAware has a track record of developing technologies designed to accelerate the task of building access across multiple data sources. Exact terms of the transaction were not disclosed.”
The release also notes:
- Using service-oriented architecture (SOA), XAware offers bi-directional, real-time data access to service-enable data for Web 2.0 and other integration services.
- XAware has partnerships with IBM, Sun Microsystems and Atos Origin.
- The XAware.org community is very active with over 10,000 members contributing to the development of the code.
Venture Capitalists Consolidating Bets?
Still, an important side note: Both Sparxent and XAware had funding from vSpring Captial. The VAR Guy wonders: Were venture capitalists simply looking to consolidate their companies? Hmmm.
In some ways, venture capitalists sure seem to be consolidating their open source bets. Earlier this week, SpringSource acquired Hyperic — both companies had funding from Benchmark Capital.
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Excellent point. With OpenText buying Vignette, I think this space is consolidating in general. Also, Accel is on both sides of the Hyperic deal too. Same 2 firms, and same partners within those firms.
Randy: The VAR Guy was just about to unplug (at least for dinner) heading into the weekend. Then your comment showed up. Thanks for offering more evidence that Venture Capitalists seem to be consolidating their bets.