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TIBCO Acquires Spotfire, Adding BI to SOA

Start-up specializes in advanced business-intelligence software, adding to TIBCO's product arsenal

May 3, 2007

2 Min Read

Spotfire's business intelligence is a logical step for TIBCO as it moves up the stack: It recently unveiled complex event processing (CEP) and business process modeling products, and has always been a major player in BPM and business activity monitoring (BAM) software. However, all these higher-level products are dependent on the underlying infrastructure, which in most cases means SOA. To see the full benefits, customers will need to make sure they have SOA in place first, whether from TIBCO or one of its competitors.
Andy Dornan
Senior Technology Editor

TIBCO Software this week agreed to acquire Spotfire, a vendor focused on advanced business-intelligence, foretelling an intriguing blend of BI and service-based applications.

TIBCO said it will pay $195 million in cash for Spotfire.Spotfire focuses on predictive-analysis software that helps companies analyze data using an interactive (Q&A-based) visual approach. The vendor touts more than 800 active customers including ABN AMRO, AMD, Chevron, Merck, Pfizer, Shell, Texas Instruments, Toshiba and Unilever.

TIBCO aims to integrate those capabilities with its existing SOA (service-oriented architecture) and BPM (business process management) products. The combination would let businesses analyze the performance of service-based applications in real-time, getting a truer picture of the enterprise in action.

TIBCO's opportunity may be with companies with existing BI capabilities that need to bring those platforms up to date--and are eying more flexible service-based environments as the delivery mechanism for next-generation business apps.

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