The rub for law firms is that the only significant potential targets left in this space are Interwoven, Vignette and the new, Hummingbird enhanced, Open Text.
A HP buyout of either Open Text or Interwoven is likely to cause disruption to their product roadmaps and probably dilute the focus both products have placed on providing solutions customised for law firms (although this could already be in process for Hummingbird).
On another note (and quite strangely timed considering the Stellant buyout) Oracle announced a new co-seller agreement with Open Text, under which both companies will sell jointly bundled software.
If Oracle and Open Text do push forward with this new endeavour, it's something of an about face for the Hummingbird team which has been pushing the use of MSSQL as a back end in instead of Oracle. Open Text's Ron Vangell summed this up well in describing the relationship with Oracle as one of "benign neglect".
We are waiting with baited breath to find out whether HP will buy Interwoven or Open Text, whether Oracle will continue with its co-selling arrangement and whether Open Text will start pushing Oracle as the preferred database back end. Regardless of the outcome you wouldn't want to be a law firm purchasing or implementing a new DMS right now.
Oracle's Stellant buyout:
http://www.oracle.com/stellent/index.html
http://www.ovum.com/news/euronews.asp?id=5052
Open Text deal
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2047835,00.asp
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