The Red Headed Step Child

U2 databases Universe and Unidata are like the red headed step child.  U2 has had a lot of suitors from Informix to IBM and now to Rocket Software and still not much as changed.  The growth rate is double digits, but the software is still not well know.  There are approximately 35,000 customers with 2.7 active maintenance licenses around the world.

Rocket/U2 does not really have sales people that sell software because the have none to sell.  All of the sales are driven by U2 VAR's that package the database in with their software.  The time to change this model is now. 

When Oracle started in 1977 selling its signature database and middleware it only took 9 years before it started developing business application software.  In the intervening years it spent billions to purchase software companies like PeopleSoft, Siebel Systems, and Hyperion solutions to name just a few of the 100 or so acquisitions.

So Rocket needs to loosen the purse strings and start acquisitions that help sell the databases licenses just like Oracle and Microsoft are doing.  Then those sales people will not be writing sales orders from the VAR's, they will be out on the street, so to speak, making those sales.  The growth rate could be 10 times better instead of a 120 million dollar business that should be a billion dollar business.

Think about would you rather buy your software from a VAR or the company that makes the database?  Easy answer in Q4 of 2010 Oracle had 7 billion in licenses and 13.1 billion in software services.