I had a chance to ask the CEO of one of Acme Packet's competitors about yesterday's announcement of Oracle's planned acquisition of Acme. Charlie Vogt, CEO of Genband, told me that the deal was positive news for his company.
"It's actually good for Genband, really, but it's not a shocker," he said. "We feel like there's a huge convergence, not just fixed and wireless, but the core to the edge to the user experience."
Like Acme Packet, Genband is a company that had been heavily focused in the carrier world through much of its early existence, but is now adding an enterprise play. It's moved into the Session Border Controller (SBC) market to compete with Acme Packet, Sonus, and other companies with similar pedigrees.
"It's a great acquisition, for Acme and Oracle," Vogt added. He also noted that the deal could change the competitive dynamic in ways that help Genband: "For us, it takes a pure-play out of the marketplace, which tends to be good" for competitors.
Vogt said the deal is good for Oracle because the majority of Acme Packet's business currently is with the carriers, and while Oracle's a huge company, the carriers are currently a small part of their business.
Vogt's bottom line? The deal is, "Not a shocker at all--Oracle specifically so."
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