Joe Peichel

IBM buys Systemcorp Busy week for M & A -- CA buys Netegrity, IBM buys SystemCorp, and EMC buys Dantz. Wow, lots of founders got rich!! Interesting notes about the IBM and EMC buys...companies looking to consolidate their software purchases and middleware infrastructure can focus even more attention on IBM and EMC, though I believe EMC will continue to struggle a bit in defining the role of its software portfolio in its overall business strategy (of course, everyone knows that software sells hardware, but with growth in the enterprise storage market slowing to almost flat, EMC's looking for new revenue and growth opportunities).

Competitors Pounce on CA's Netegrity Buy Given CA's record of making good technology disintegrate, this acquisition is bound to make competitors in the IdM space nearly giddy at the prospect of potential customer migration.