BEA Systems and Plumtree Software today announced that the companies have entered into a definitive agreement under which BEA will acquire Plumtree for approximately $200 million in cash. Plumtree Software provides enterprise portal solutions to connect disparate work groups, IT systems and business processes. Its portfolio features the industry's only cross-platform portal, running on both J2EE and .NET. By combining the Plumtree and BEA portal portfolios, BEA will be able to better provide customers with improved enterprise productivity by offering both collaborative and transactional portals across multiple platforms and application servers.

"The Portal is becoming the major point of integration in the enterprise," said BEA Chairman and CEO Alfred Chuang (pictured above) at a conference call attended by SYS-CON Media.

He continued, "We’re aggressively pursuing growth opportunities and today is a clear example. If you take any point away from this conference call, I would like it to be that BEA is on the move. Let’s get straight into the details of the announcement. BEA Systems today entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Plumtree software for approximately $200 million in cash.

"The Plumtree portfolio features the industry’s only cross-platform portal, running on both .NET and multiple J2EE application servers including WebLogic. The combination makes BEA the number 1 multi-platform portal supplier in the world.

"As I said in our earnings call last week, the portal is becoming the point of integration in the enterprise, and the portal is being used for dashboard, company care centers, employee cooperation and many other purposes. Both the WebLogic, and the Plumtree platforms are built from the ground up for a specific integration purposes. Though the WebLogic and Plumtree platforms are built from different design points, they are very complimentary. Our combined Plumtree and BEA, will be able to better provide our customers with both enterprise collaboration and also transaction portals. And finally, we expect that the transaction will close in the Fall of this calendar year."

"The hallmark of Plumtree has always been to support the open environments," said Plumtree CEO John Kunze answering an analyst question. "Plumtree currently supports SQL and Oracle and we do not see that changing."

A question relating to the "mid-teen growth expecation by Wall Street" raised by the Goldman Sachs analyst during the conference call was not clearly answered by Chuang. However, he said BEA's intention is to keep all Plumtree employees. Chuang said Plumtree's office is literally one block away from the BEA Campus, "and now we will have a larger campus. The adoption rate for the overall portal market makes 65% of BEA's market share, we expect this to grove."

Under terms of the agreement, BEA will pay USD$5.50 per share, in cash, plus the assumption of outstanding Plumtree options, for a total transaction value of approximately $200 million. There is a $5.5 million dollar break-up fee involved in the transaction, and
the acquisition is subject to regulatory approval, Plumtree shareholder approval and other customary closing conditions. The transaction is expected to close in the fall of calendar year 2005.

Upon close of the transaction, Plumtree will become a part of a new BEA product unit. BEA Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President Mark Carges, and Plumtree Software Chief Executive Officer John Kunze, will lead the transition.

Mark Carges

Headquartered in San Francisco, Plumtree was founded in 1996 and has approximately 400 employees. Plumtree has more than 21 million worldwide users and more than 700 customers, including Airbus, Ford, Pratt & Whitney, Starbucks and the U.S. Navy.

"Plumtree's core competency is cross-platform enterprise connectivity and productivity. We give people a place to collaborate and a face to their enterprise business processes or composite services," said Kunze. "BEA's 'Think liquid.' vision is powerful and completely aligned with the longstanding culture and aspirations of our team. We're excited about becoming a part of the BEA team."

John Kunze