Open Text CEO not interested in open source companies

Martin Veitch of CIO.com (a site I've written for occasionally in the past) has an excellent write-up based on a conversation he had with Open Text CEO John Shackleton (someone we should definitely line up for a One on One Interview). There are several interesting tidbits, but what jumped out at me was his strong assertion that he had no interest in purchasing an open source content management vendor like Alfresco (assuming they were interested in selling).

He didn't just say he wasn't interested, however, he was adamant about it saying, "We wouldn't touch them." Why would he discount an area of content management that is obviously growing? In what could be a coincidence, Cheryl McKinnon fled the Open Text coop recently to become Chief Marketing Officer at Open Source vendor Nuxeo.

Although I doubt he is that involved in the day to day operations of his company to the extent that he would be aware of every personnel move, he probably knows about this one, given the high profile nature of the change. Regardless, it is odd that a company that buys pieces as aggressively as Open Text would have such little interest in what objectively is a company scoring some sales and building some very interesting tools and technologies. On the flip side, he doubts very much that SAP, a strong Open Text partner, will end up buying his company because he says that's not the way they operate.

Check out the rest of the post for information on why he bought Vignette. One thing is clear. He says what's on his mind and he doesn't appear to worry about what others might think. Refreshing from a company CEO actually.

For more information:
- see the article on CIO.com

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