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IBM invests in EnterpriseDB
Matthew Aslett, March 25, 2008 @ 9:14 am ETWhile this year’s OSBC event has actually started yet, the big news on day one looks set to be EnterpriseDB’s announcement that IBM has joined existing investors in a $10m Series C funding round (EnterpriseDB also announced its new Postgres Plus strategy and the open sourcing of GridSQL).
IBM’s investment in EnterpriseDB is particularly fascinating given how rare it is for the company to make venture capital-style investments and also given the dynamic between IBM, Sun and Oracle. IBM usually chooses to support startups indirectly through its Venture Capital Group, which provides resources and assistance to VCs and their investments.
In fact, looking through Calibre One’s list of US and European VC deals for the last three years I could find only one other example of a direct IBM investment. The omen’s are not good, given what eventually became of Infinite Data Storage, however.
In the meantime, while EnterpriseDB’s Oracle-compatibility features are being downplayed in its new Postgres Plus strategy (they remain a part of the product portfolio, but are now positioned as a value-add feature, rather than the raison d’etre) they provide a clear example of how IBM could use EnterpriseDB as a weapon against its major database rival.
Of course it is also impossible to ignore Sun’s acquisition of MySQL – and it’s support of PostgreSQL – and it could be that IBM thinks it needs an open source database on its side as a direct competitor to MySQL following that deal (arguably of course, Postgres Plus Advanced Server is not direct competition for MySQL, although it’s all a matter of positioning).
IBM hasn’t, yet, explained the rationale behind the investment from its perspective, but I’ll upfate when I have more.
Comments (6) Categories: Funding,M&A,Software
“IBM’s investment in EnterpriseDB is particularly fascinating given how rare it is for the company to make venture capital-style investments”
What? Dude Google IBM Venture Capital Group
IBM will typically seed a company it might be interested in buying down the road. A good example of this was Cyanea. IBM was an early investor in Cyanea and later purchased the company outright. Now Cyanea is one of their top Tivoli product brands (ITCAM). There are other similar examples to this.
johnmwillis.com
Opps .. looks like I should have read further before jumping the gun. You are right a “C” round investment is odd for IBM.
Sorry
John
Thanks for the comment. Appreciate the clarification.
[...] I am pleased to report that three month’s worth of work has finally paid off, and the employees at my company can relax a bit (or at least not work 70 hours a week). Tuesday was the day of the big launch; we announced three major pieces of news, which were quickly picked up by a number of major sources including, but by no means limited to, the New York Times, CNN Money, and The 451 Group. [...]
[...] The ramp has been fairly steady; early support from the Linux community, and the company’s hiring of many of the Postgres team, gave it early credibility. By 2006, it had already begun effective partnering, with heavyweights like Sun weighing in, unveiled JBOSS support, added heavy hitters to its board of directors, and sustained a steady cadence of product releases. In 2008, after strong growth and international expansion in 2007, the firm raised $10M in funding to fuel further growth – and among the investors, close on the heels of Sun’s acquisition, was IBM, in a relatively unusual step. See the 451 Group’s discussion at the time here. [...]
[...] I am pleased to report that three months’ worth of work has finally paid off, and the employees at my company can relax a bit (or at least not work 70 hours a week). Tuesday was the day of the big launch; we announced three major pieces of news, which were quickly picked up by a number of major sources including, but by no means limited to, the New York Times, CNN Money, and The 451 Group. [...]