True love

After a long courtship Microsoft today announced its engagement to its long-time lover, ProClarity. ProClarity had long been in a monogamous relationship with Microsoft as a partner, and had clearly been trying to win Microsoft's heart ever since they first met. This s a excellent example of power dating in the software industry, as Proclarity had seemingly tied its fate to Microsoft as a conscious strategy for a long time. Proclarity had revenues of USD 15.1M in 2005, but had barely grown in 2005 over 2004 (just 2% growth) and at 135 employees was probably not profitable. Growth of 2% and losing money is not a healthy position for Proclarity or any other software vendor, so its new position as a blushing bride is a sound move for the company. Financial terms of the Microsoft dowry were not obvious from the announcement.

Microsoft gains a strong reporting technology and moves ever further into direct competition with the mainstream BI vendors Business Objects and Cognos, a trend noted previously in this blog.