SAP，接招吧！甲骨文（Oracle）最近宣布斥资19亿美元收购云计算人才管理软件提供商Taleo。而就在两个月前，其竞争对手SAP刚刚宣布将以34亿美元收购人力资源软件提供商SuccessFactors。
两家科技巨头都不约而同地采取了收购方式来进军云计算领域。去年十月，甲骨文已将云计算客户服务提供商RightNow Technologies收入囊中，而现在，甲骨文的人力资源服务又打上了软件即服务提供商Taleo的烙印。
近日，证券公司JMP Securities的分析师帕特里克•瓦拉文斯发布报告，深入总结了这一收购策略。“我们认为，甲骨文、SAP和IBM等大型企业软件提供商目前在与小型软件即服务公司的竞争中处于下风，后者发展迅速，而且越来越被市场所接受。我们越发认为，这些大型公司正将收购视为遏止市场份额流失、在竞争激烈的软件即服务市场抢占优势的良策。”
所谓的人才管理软件（以及其它用于管理员工的软件）对甲骨文和SAP这类巨头格外具有吸引力。虽然绝大部分客户并未将其核心的金融或供应链软件迁移到云端，但他们却更乐意在人力资源管理软件方面作出尝试。
Taleo成立于1999年，它经常强调，那时候人们还未开始讨论云计算。Taleo的软件能帮助人力资源部门处理招聘、绩效管理、学习管理和补贴等事宜。同时，Taleo还在软件中加入了一些社交协作功能。甲骨文开发部执行副总裁托马斯•库里安曾公开表示：“甲骨文正在积极向客户提供全方位云计算解决方案，其中包括销售自动化、人力资源、人才管理、社交网络、数据库和Java，它们都是甲骨文公共云的一部分。RightNow公司先进的客户服务云计算软件是对甲骨文公共云非常重要的补充。”
随着Taleo被收购，人力资源管理领域目前仅剩一家大型独立软件公司——Workday。不过虽然Workday现在很吸引人（据报道它已回绝了数次收购要约），但所有迹象都表明该公司将于今年进行首次公开募股（IPO）。甲骨文对Taleo的收购则预计将于今年年中结束。让云计算大战来得更猛烈些吧！
译者：项航
Take that, SAP. Oracle just announced it is buying Taleo, maker of cloud-based talent management software, for $1.9 billion. The move comes just two months after rival SAP said it would acquire HR software provider SuccessFactors for $3.4 billion.
Both tech giants have been buying their way into the cloud. Last October Oracle (ORCL) bought cloud-based customer service provider RightNow Technologies, and now it is rounding out its human services software-as-a-service offerings with Taleo.
A recent report from JMP Securities analyst Patrick Walravens sums up the strategy well. "We believe that larger enterprise software vendors such as Oracle, SAP and IBM have been losing share to their smaller, faster growing SaaS competitors that are increasingly being accepted in the market. Increasingly, we believe these companies are viewing acquisitions as a way to stem market share losses and position themselves better in the competitive SaaS marketplace."
So-called talent management software (and other tools used to manage employees) are particularly attractive to large players like Oracle and SAP (SAP) . While most enterprise customers won't switch their core financials or supply chain software to the cloud, they're much more willing to make the plunge with HR tools.
Taleo has been around since 1999 — before people were talking about the cloud, as the company likes to point out. Its software allows HR departments to handle recruitment, performance management, learning management, and compensation. It also has some social collaboration features baked into its software. "Oracle is moving aggressively to offer customers a full range of Cloud Solutions including sales force automation, human resources, talent management, social networking, databases and Java as part of the Oracle Public Cloud," Thomas Kurian, EVP of Oracle Development, said in a release. "RightNow's leading customer service cloud is a very important addition to Oracle's Public Cloud."
The Taleo acquisition leaves one large, independent player in the human capital management space: Workday. But as attractive as Workday is (it has reportedly turned down multiple acquisition offers), all signs point to the company filing for IPO sometime this year. As for Oracle's acquisition of Taleo, the deal is expected to close mid-year. Let the cloud wars begin.
SAP宣布以34亿美元收购人力资源管理软件供应商SuccessFactors——无论如何，这绝对是条大新闻。
第一个问题是，SAP耗费如此巨资，通过收购拓展云计算市场，有意义吗？（当然，SAP为何选择周六早晨宣布这笔交易也是一个问题）
SAP的SuccessFactors收购价比该公司上周五收盘价高出52%。但总部位于加州圣马特奥市的SuccessFactors物有所值：这是一家在蓬勃发展的云计算软件市场上迅速崛起的企业。这家公司声称有超过3,500家客户，遍布168个国家，2011年第三季度营收同比增长77%。与此同时，SAP是企业软件市场的巨无霸，但在云计算市场却并非如此。虽然SAP也在尝试内生性地拓展云计算业务，但同时并不想错过通过收购拓展这一市场的机会。
为什么？因为SAP（和其竞争对手）已清楚地认识到，通过网络交付的软件已经不再只是一股风潮，面向的只是捉襟见肘的的小企业。10月份，SAP的竞争对手甲骨文（Oracle）以15亿美元收购了另一家云计算软件公司RightNow Technologies。大型软件企业通过收购进入这个软件服务市场的趋势方兴未艾。还有一些公司也是不错的收购对象，比如总部位于加州普莱森顿的Workday，与此同时，市场上有意收购的公司也不在少数。
过去，SAP在收购方面没有这么大的动作。但SAP已经进入新时代，两位新上任的首席执行官孟鼎铭和施杰翰正在踏步地将这家公司带入社交、移动和云计算软件领域。“云计算是SAP未来增长的核心。SuccessFactors的领导团队及技术与SAP实现融合将诞生一家云计算巨头，”SAP联席首席执行官孟鼎铭在上周六的新闻稿中称。“这项收购将有助于我们帮助全球的首席执行官们解决他们的第一要务——管理人员和人才。”
孟鼎铭周一接受《财富》杂志（FORTUNE）采访时补充道，虽然近期内SAP不太可能再次进行如此大规模的云计算业务收购，但SuccessFactors的收购价是合理的。
“我们要摘的是‘皇冠上的明珠’，这些业务本身或与SAP联手后能让我们在特定领域居于领先地位，” 孟鼎铭称。“SuccessFactors就是这样的资产。”当然，有些分析师并不看好这项策略——也不认同SAP的收购价。“如果SAP此项交易的战略意图是将SaaS融入企业，我们认为现实情况将有很大不同，”调查公司Cowen and Company的高级研究分析师彼得·戈德马彻在周一早间的报告中写道。“很难想象SAP的企业销售团队怎样才能成功地向客户传递这样一条信息：什么时候该使用企业预置型软件，什么时候应该使用SaaS。更难想象的是，SAP的销售代表销售SFSF 【SuccessFactors]】，因为它的价格只有SAP人力资源模块的一个零头。”
Over the weekend, SAP announced the $3.4 billion acquisition of human resources management software provider SuccessFactors — big news by any measure.
The first question (besides why SAP (SAP) chose Saturday morning for the announcement) is whether or not shelling out so much money to buy its way into the cloud makes sense?
SAP's purchase of SuccessFactors was a 52% premium to Friday's closing stock price. But San Mateo, Calif.-based SuccessFactors is valuable — it's a growing player in a growing market for cloud-based software. The company says it has more than 3,500 customers across 168 countries, and recorded 77% revenue growth year-over-year in the third quarter of 2011. SAP, meanwhile, is the 800-pound gorilla in business software, but not in cloud computing. And while it's making attempts to grow its cloud-based offerings organically as well, it can't afford to miss the opportunity to buy its way into the market simultaneously.
Why? It's now become evident to SAP (and its competitors) that software delivered over the web is not just a passing fad for cash-strapped small businesses. In October, rival Oracle (ORCL) bought another cloud-based software company, RightNow Technologies, for $1.5 billion. And the trend of larger software companies buying their way into the software-as-a-service market won't end anytime soon. There are still quite a few promising acquisition targets out there such as Pleasanton, Calif.-based Workday and plenty of appetite to eat them up.
In the past, SAP wasn't so big on acquisitions. But this is a new era at SAP, where its two newish CEOs Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe, are taking bolder steps to get the company into social, mobile and the cloud. "The cloud is a core of SAP's future growth, and the combination of SuccessFactors' leadership team and technology with SAP will create a cloud powerhouse," co-CEO McDermott said in a press release issued on Saturday. "The acquisition will help us address the top priority for CEOs globally – managing people and talent."
In an interview with FORTUNE on Monday, McDermott added that while SAP is unlikely to make any additional, large-scale cloud acquisitions in the near future, the price was just right for SuccessFactors.
"What we try to do is buy 'crown jewel assets' that have attributes that either on their own right or in combination with SAP allow us to lead in a category," McDermott said. "In the case of SuccessFactors it was a one of a kind asset."
Of course, some analysts aren't convinced the strategy — and the price SAP is paying — will work. "If SAP's strategic intention with this deal is to sell SaaS into the enterprise, we think the reality in the field will be very different," Peter Goldmacher, a senior research analyst with Cowen and Company, wrote in a note on Monday morning. "It's hard to imagine the company's enterprise sales force successfully delivering a message to its customers when to use on prem [on premise] and when to use SaaS, much less an SAP sales rep selling SFSF [SuccessFactors] for a fraction of what SAP's HR modules sell for."