Some time ago, we were asked: “where are all of the open source billionaires?”
Well, let me introduce you to MySQL, the company that Sun Microsystems today bought for $1 Billion.
Why Sun Microsystems Bought MySQL
Sun just got a client list of pretty much the vast majority of Web companies. That is worth a lot. $1 Billion? Sure, why not.
The company commands a $13.3B market cap, but has revenues of $13.9B per year. It was sitting on nearly $4B in cash… so this is a bet to bolster its growth and increase its multiple.
According to this AP story:
MySQL competes with non-open-source offerings from Microsoft Corp. and Oracle Corp., which dominate database software for traditional businesses.
However, MySQL is the rapidly growing market leader in open-source database software, particularly among Web-based companies, where it commands about 80 percent of the global market, according to Sun Chief Executive Jonathan Schwartz.
Microsoft is less than 10 percent of that market, Schwartz said.
“We are really acquiring a database that customers and Web companies across the world have moved to at a breathtaking clip,” Schwartz said in an interview. “The titans of the Web all use MySQL — banks, automobile companies, pretty much all of the Fortune 500 runs MySQL in their shops.”
The acquisition, expected to close in the third or fourth quarter, takes pressure off Sun to spend some of the cash it’s been accumulating. It also bolsters its software offerings with a well-known known name in Internet data retrieval.
“This gives us access to every hot Web company on earth, and every company that will be hot 5 years from now,” Schwartz said. “For us, this is completely landscape-changing.”
We have seen more and more open-source investments of late: ad server OpenAds raised an additional $15.5M in funding and to quote Paid Content: “Red Hat (Linux), Automattic (Wordpress) and Acquia (Drupal) have all set about offering premium options on top of essentially free software”.
It makes sense: organizations use open source free software, but they will invariably need value-added services, and as the Web becomes a bigger force in the broader economy and advertising ecosystem, it’s worth paying up. That, I suspect, is what Sun is betting on.
Sizing up Open Source Projects and Deals
In terms of acquisitions of open-source projects, this is the biggest. But in terms of all open-source projects, it’s worth noting that Red Hat is publicly traded and worth $3.5B. Where does this $1B deal fit in all-time M&A activity?
And to see a comprehensive list of the largest M&As of all time, click here.
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WatchMojo NewsletterOracle pays $8.5B to acquire BEA Systems. It’s not Oracle’s biggest deal, in 2005, Larry Ellison shelled out a whopping $10.3B to acquire Peoplesoft.
To see where this deal sits in terms of other M&A in the same range (not adjusted for inflation), see our snapshot of M&A deals:
And to see a comprehensive list of the largest M&As of all time, click here.
Robert Scoble, Microsoft and VC-backed Podtech.net’s former content guy, is set to join Fast Company and help build FastCompany.tv.
As a video content producer at WatchMojo.com, I am always interested and encouraged when more professionals get into the art of storytelling online. If online video advertising is to grow (and overtake search advertising in billings, then we need to change marketers’ perception that online video is only UGC).
I have never met Robert but commend him for the move. Don Dodge outlines the reasons why this shows Scoble’s maturity and wisdom in the move. You have to be honest with yourself in business and in life, and clearly Scoble seems to have his priorities and goals in place.
I will comment on a few themes that this move highlights:
Intrapreneur vs. Entrepreneur
It takes a very different set of skills and lifestyle to start a company than it does to build one. I’ve written quite a bit about the intrapreneur vs. entrepreneur question all executives need to ask themselves before launching a venture.
Ultimately, it boils down to this, from Seeing the Forest Through the Trees:
If you wake up in the morning and are greeted with bad news, don’t worry too much because you’re bound to get worst news later on in the day…
And if ever you are greeted with some good news, enjoy it cause it won’t last, something is bound to go awry…
You can read longer posts on the matter here:
- Intrapreneur vs. Entrepreneur
- Growing startups is all about people
Text Content vs Radio Content vs. Video Content
Print companies are more likely to take a hands-on, proactive approach to online video than TV companies. One reason is that online video poses the risk to shrink TV revenues and TV networks’ businesses whereas it is entirely accretive for print companies. As such, it’s not at all surprising to see Fast Company become proactive with producing content in video format online. Whether or not they succeed, I don’t know. I do know, however, that Fast Company is going to quickly learn that not all content is similar. How so?
From 2000-05 I was a writer and VP of sales for a mid-sized online publisher/online magazine (I know, those two roles were unrelated but we all wore many hats at the company). In 2003, I decided to venture into radio in my spare time. My writing style (asking questions, setting up a hypothesis and proving or disproving it, rapid fire etc.) was actually suited for radio, but I realized that producing content for radio was actually very different than producing content in text format for a magazine. This is why when the company wanted to do radio and shove its content through airways, it did not really take.
In fact, if you look at the landscape of media companies, you have companies that largely emphasize TV, radio or print. Yes, some companies have operations in two of three (if not all three) but the obvious crossover appeal and fit is limited.
FOX is one example whose radio (the FOX Radio network), print (FOXSports.com) and video (FOX News and FOX Sports) do it well.
But lot of print companies take the wrong editorial path in producing video content for the Web. I could write an entire post on this. Oh, wait, I did, it’s called: Video is the Killer App (But not in a Good Way for All).
The more I talk to print companies though, I realize the way they go about moving into video is ill-fated too. But that is a separate post for another day.
One thing is for sure, while FastCompany.tv will face its ups and downs, it is a far better environment to be producing content than within MSFT or a venture-backed startup.
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