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End of an era as portal pioneer gets swept into larger application infrastructure play; the changing role of the portal (thx to PortalsMagazine)
by Tamina Vahidy, Line56
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
BEA Systems has acquired Plumtree for $200 million, removing the last major portal pure-play from the marketplace.
The portal has long been considered part of a larger offering, be it in collaboration, vertical-specific applications, or application infrastructure/middleware. Plumtree's recent discussions with Line56 have emphasized the value of composite applications, which go a long way in making the portal itself a kind of lightweight integration layer; as such, it isn't surprising to find Plumtree folded into BEA middleware.
Ironically, BEA has sometimes been mentioned as a potential acquisition candidate for Oracle. The company's acquisition of Plumtree brings it up to speed with rival IBM in the portal arena, in which BEA has never had a popular alternative to IBM WebSphere Portal.
There are still independent portal companies like Bowstreet in the marketplace, but today's acquisition is a clear signal that the portal has passed from its original role as standalone presentation layer to a part of a larger technology stack.