It came as a surprise to many the recent announcement that TIBCO has acquired Orchestra Networks, a pure-play master data management (MDM) solution vendor (1). An acquisition of this significance has not been seen in the MDM software market since Informatica acquired Heiler Software back in 2012. The reason Informatica made this acquisition was clear cut: they wanted a leading product information management (PIM) solution to strengthen a growing MDM portfolio. However, TIBCO’s acquisition of Orchestra Networks is more ambiguous as TIBCO already offers a capable multidomain MDM software solution. So what do we know so far?
- Orchestra Networks has been recognized as a leader by Gartner in the past two published versions of the Magic Quadrants for Master Data Management Solutions. In the same research TIBCO has consistently been rated as a niche player.
- While Orchestra Networks YoY revenue and market share growth rate has outperformed TIBCO, TIBCO has significantly greater revenue and market share for its MDM product.
- Orchestra Networks was a privately owned, and funded, best of breed MDM vendor. TIBCO is also privately owned by Vista Equity Partners, a private equity and venture capital firm. This scenario has given TIBCO the funding to grow through continuous acquisitions. Recent examples include Scribe Software, Cisco’s Data Virtualization, and Statistica.
In summary, Orchestra Networks is an attractive acquisition due to strong growth, and a market leading presence and fits TIBCO’s strategy of growth through acquisitions (1).
The joint press release suggests the Orchestra Networks will operate as a standalone entity, at least for the near term. Further its states that Orchestra Networks customers will now have access to TIBCO’s portfolio of products. However, prospective customers may be confused about which of TIBCO’s MDM products they should buy and why.
The MDM team (comprised of Bill O’Kane, Michael Moran, Sally Parker, Alan Dayley and myself) will further develop our analysis of the acquisition following publication of the 2018 MDM Magic Quadrant. Once published, the team will be freed from MQ publication process constraints and enable us to engage on a detailed basis with the principles of both TIBCO and Orchestra Networks.
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1 Comment
Did you ever publish a follow-up review of this acquisition?