In Like a Legacy, Out Like an E-business

Software Magazine, June, 2000 by Colleen Frye

Enterprise application integration (EAI) was a hot topic during 1999, wing numerous vendors vying for marketshare and mindshare. Some of the consolidation in this young area included level 8 Systems' acquisition on Template Software. Level 7 also completed its acquisition of development tools provider Seer Technologies. And in May 2000, Active Software, which has been a dominant player in the young EAI market, announced an agreement to be acquired by webMethods.

In the development tools/languages market, Linux player Red Hat (recently gone public) picked up Cygnus Solutions. Also, Sun Microsystems completed its acquisition of Forte Software, McCabe & Associates picked up True Software, and Telelogic ABG bought Verilog.

Some of the former Software 500 companies are now helping to bulk up the ERP players. For example, PelpleSoft completed its acquisition of CRM provider Vantive, and J.D. Edwards bought manufacturing/supply chain vendor Numetrix. And early in 2000, Oracle announced its plans to acquire EAI/CRM provider Carleton Crop.

The Software 500 Methodology

The Software 500 is a comprehensive look at the enterprise software landscape, encompassing both public and private companies that develop and market business software and services for a wide variety of industries. The ranking is based on total worldwide software/services revenue for 1999, which comprises license revenue, maintenance and support, training, and software-related services revenue. Suppliers are not ranked on their total corporate revenue, since many have other lines of business, such as hardware or entertainment/gaming software. Revenues are based on the calendar year so that all firms are measured over the same four quarters. Exceptions are noted in the footnotes to the ranking chart, as are all estimated revenues. The financial information was gathered from Software Magazine's annual vendor survey, public documents, press releases, SEC filings, and industry analysts.

Thomas Nee, a technology consultant based in Quincy, Mass. (tnee@mediaone.net), provided the data analysis.