To BEA or Not to BEA?

For all you WebLogic and Tuxedo lovers, here's another fine example of why I keep saying, we performance weenies can't afford to operate in a computing cloister. We have to keep a weather eye on the machinations of the marketplace.

Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn (Wasn't he in the movie "Corporate Raiders of the Last Deutschmark"?) has called for the sale of BEA Systems Inc., whose stock price has sagged with the growth in open-source software and under pressure from larger competitors such as IBM Corp. and Oracle Corp. Analysts said BEA has failed to stir enthusiasm among investors. For example, Rob Enderle, principal analyst with Enderle Group, a technology consulting firm in San Jose, Calif. stated, "This class of software, because of open source, it's much harder to get people interested in it unless you're doing phenomenally well in sales...which BEA has not been."

Also on Friday, BEA said it has received an additional notice from the Nasdaq that it remains out of compliance because of the delayed filings and its shares remain in danger of being delisted.