Open Text’s purchase of Vignette signals more consolidation in ECM

Waterloo ON-based Open Text Corp.’s announcement yesterday that it is acquiring Vignette, an Austin TX-based provider of web and transactional content management technologies, represents the final wave of consolidation in Enterprise Content Management (ECM) that began with EMC's acquisition of Documentum five years ago, says Info-Tech Research Group. “Vignette has been on the ropes for a long time. They're what we call the 'walking dead': decaying revenue, gradual loss of market share, little investment in new functionality, and no obvious suitors. Vignette has had challenges for several years; the economic downturn has compounded these challenges,” said George Goodall, senior research analyst for Info-Tech Research Group. Last year was relatively quiet for merger and acquisition activity in enterprise applications. Major vendors like IBM, Oracle, and SAP were digesting earlier acquisitions and focusing on reconciling their product lines and service offerings. This year offers a change, particularly given the challenging economic environment. “The acquisition of Vignette is not a surprise, particularly after Autonomy acquired Interwoven. Open Text is clearly attempting to secure its position as the largest independent provider of ECM software. It follows a number of large acquisitions such as IXOS, Artesia, and Hummingbird as well as a number of smaller functional tuck-in deals. Open Text is certainly growing its customer base but it must now contend with an increasingly large portfolio of overlapping products and the inevitable confusion of prospects.” said Goodall.

Open Text’s purchase of Vignette signals more consolidation in ECM

Brief | May 7, 2009

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