Merger Mania Mounts in Fragmented Software Industry
Nearly two-thirds of software companies aren't profitable and may find themselves forced onto an acquisition path, Bain study suggests
Nearly two-thirds of software companies aren't profitable and may find themselves forced onto an acquisition path, Bain study suggests
Centers of Consolidation
Increasing Private Equity Participation
What's a Tech Exec to Do?
- Many sectors, such as security software, enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM) and content management remain fragmented, with the top four players in each sector accounting for less than 50 percent of overall market share;
- Correspondingly, a number of these sectors represent the highest growth opportunities. Sectors such as security software, storage management, business analytics, application servers and application lifecycle management software, have projected growth rates through 2005 that are nearly double the overall industry average;
- Though sizeable, "gorillas" account for only one-third of the market in many of these sectors, and as these "gorillas" begin to stake out broader footprints, the category boundaries across applications like ERP, CRM and SCM and infrastructure software such as network and systems management, security management and storage management are beginning to blur.
- "Gorillas" beyond the software pure plays such as IBM, Cisco and HP have signaled their intent to increasingly focus on software to achieve profitable growth through both organic investments and M&A.
Centers of Consolidation
Increasing Private Equity Participation
What's a Tech Exec to Do?
