Open Text buys Vignette: Reactions from around the web

As we went to press last week, Open Text bought Vignette for $310 million [1]. As you would expect there was a wide range of reactions from around the web. Let's look at what several analysts had to say about the sale in these excerpts from their blog posts:

CMS Watch: Open Text buys Vignette: Investment or impulse [2]

"When Autonomy came along and bought Interwoven a few months back, it raised eyebrows, but at least there were some plausible technology synergies. The synergies are much fewer with Open Text and Vignette. In fact, technologically speaking, what Open Text is getting, with Vignette, is a lot of overlap. Open Text already has a WCM offering (the product formerly known as RedDot); it also has a Records Management product, a Collaboration and Community suite, and a mature DAM [3] product (Artesia, which is vastly richer and more functional than Vignette Media 7). The biggest single thing Open Text gets that it didn't already have one or more of is a Java-based portal product."

Ostatic: Open Text buying Vignette and the impact on open source content management [4]

"I generally agree that content management platforms represent an area where the costly proprietary players are facing severe competition from open source platforms. I do think Open Text, with Vignette, will retain many businesses that won't make a switch simply because of how long and entrenched their Vignette content management efforts have been. Vignette has fallen very far from the status it once had, though, and it faces daunting problems in winning new customers. That has a lot to do with the maturity of competitive open source platforms."

The Forrester Blog for Knowledge Management and Information Professionals: Can Open Text turn the page on Vignette's recent history? [5]

"With Vignette in its stable, Open Text now has a stronger online technology foundation to build upon. And some interesting possibilities exist for integration--such as with Open Text’s digital asset management (DAM) product, and Vignette’s video analysis and delivery offering (from its Vidavee acquision). Of course, while this looks good on paper, execution in rationalizing the expanded portfolio will obviously be key to success. To Open Text’s credit, it has recently stepped up efforts to standardize and integrate its various offerings."

And finally, this is my view:

It's clear that Vignette has been available for some time, but when I first heard about the announcement I was surprised it was Open Text that pulled the trigger. Since, as CMS Wire points out, they already have a web content management package, the move didn't make a lot of sense to me on the face of it. I don't see this as a reaction to open source content management, but more of a natural consolidation that happens as an industry matures and changes, regardless of the delivery models involved. Perhaps Forrester analyst Stephen Powers is right, and it will give Open Text some new integration options. Whatever happens, $310 million is probably not a huge gamble for a company the size of Open Text and they obviously thought it was one worth taking.