Channel Partners Question SAP 's Business Objects Deal

SAP business intelligence software

"Overall, we see it as a positive. As a Business Objects channel partner we should have a bigger customer base to sell into now," said Paul Grill, principal with Infosol, a Phoenix-based business intelligence solution provider and 10-year Business Objects reseller.

Late Sunday SAP and Business Objects announced an agreement for SAP to acquire Business Objects for more than 4.8 billion Euros or approximately $6.8 billion. The deal, which requires approval from Business Objects shareholders and U.S. and European regulators, is expected to close in early 2008.

With the consolidation that's been sweeping the business intelligence industry in recent years, Business Objects and its chief rival Cognos have frequently been mentioned as potential takeover targets. Resellers say the rumor mill concerning Business Objects was particularly active in recent weeks because of a report last month that the company had hired Goldman Sachs to find a buyer. Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Oracle and SAP were all mentioned as potential suitors.

"I really thought it'd be HP," said Michael Ward, senior partner at Creative TechnologyTraining Solutions, a business intelligence solution provider in Shelby Township, Mich.

"I figured an acquisition was inevitable. I didn't know how long they could remain independent," said Taylor Courtnay, president of Decision First Technologies, an Atlanta-based Business Objects channel partner. He considered SAP to be a better acquisition partner for Business Objects, noting that Oracle already has multiple business intelligence products from its previous acquisitions and IBM would likely have subsumed the business intelligence vendor.

"If the two companies are combined, the tendency for SAP shops will be to go with Business Objects," predicts Bill Dunn, president of Dunn Solutions, a Business Objects channel partner in Skokie, Ill. Dunn said when he pitches Business Objects to potential clients that use SAP applications, about 50 percent of those opportunities go with products from another business intelligence vendor. Linking SAP and Business Objects software more tightly should improve his win rate, Dunn says. "I tend to view this as an expansion of my potential client base," he said.

"My only concern would be if they changed the channel partner model," Dunn said. Infosol's Grill agreed, admitting that he knew nothing about SAP's channel program.

The acquisition is part of the evolution of business intelligence software from tools offered by independent companies such as Business Objects and Cognos to embedded reporting and data analysis within broader application solutions. On the plus side, such solutions "should be easier to sell," said Gartner analyst Dan Sholler. But that also could negate the value-add BI solutions work some channel partners have built their businesses on.

Market research firm International Data Corp. ranked Business Objects as the top company in the $6.25 billion business intelligence tools market in 2006 while SAP was ranked seventh. In 2006 SAP reported total revenue of more than $13 billion while Business Objects reported sales of $1.25 billion.

In a Monday morning conference call SAP CEO Henning Kagermann said Business Objects would operate as a separate business unit with Business Objects CEO John Schwarz staying on as CEO of the subsidiary and that there would be no significant reorganization of either company. But on the call Schwarz also acknowledged that the two companies must align their technologies, services and operations. The acquisition deal announcement said that additional "executional details" about how SAP and Business Objects will be combined would be released after the transaction is completed.

On the call Schwarz said a strategic reason for the merger is to help the companies accelerate their efforts to expand sales into mid-size markets -- customers with sales of less than $1 billion -- through the channel. Schwarz noted that each company has nearly 3,000 channel partners targeting SMB customers, "So the combined [number of] channel partners is more than 5,000," he said.

Gartner analyst Dan Sholler said SAP must provide a clear technology roadmap fairly quickly or sales of both companies' products could stall due to uncertainty.

Kagermann made it clear that Business Objects' products would remain "agnostic" -- able to work just as well with databases and applications from competitors as with SAP systems. Business Objects' software already has links to SAP's Business Information Warehouse data warehouse system, part of its NetWeaver platform. But the performance management tools SAP acquired earlier this year through its OutlookSoft buyout overlap with Business Object's own performance management offerings.

"To me it's an admission by SAP that they didn't have real end-user [BI] tools," said Ward of Creative TechnologyTraining Solutions. [While Ward's company provides Business Objects-related services and training, it severed its relationship with the vendor several years ago in a contract dispute.]

The SAP-Business Objects deal is the latest in a wave of consolidation that's been sweeping the business intelligence industry this year, including Oracle's $3.3 billion buyout of Hyperion in April and Cognos' pending $339 million acquisition of Applix. A report from UBS Investment bank said the Business Objects acquisition could make Cognos an even more attractive acquisition candidate and named EMC, HP and IBM as possible acquirers. (In a statement, Cognos CEO Rob Ashe emphasized that the SAP-Business Objects deal leaves Cognos as the leading independent performance management software vendor.)

Business Objects, which is headquartered in Paris, France, with significant operations in San Jose, Calif., itself offers technologies from a number of acquisitions, including reporting software developer Crystal Decisions, performance management software developer Cartesis and financial planning applications vendor SRC Software.

In a related matter, Business Objects issued preliminary results for its third quarter ended Sept. 30, stating that license revenue is expected to fall below expectations to between $137 million and $139 million. That, in turn, is expected to cause a shortfall in expected earnings, the company said. Schwarz said rumors about an impending acquisition took a toll on sales during the quarter.

Spy balloons: The unanswered questions about flying objects

US ships and divers are still searching for debris from a balloon shot down off the South Carolina coast

US forces have shot down four aerial objects over North American skies this month, raising more questions than answers about what's happening high above earth.

At the end of a surreal weekend, news of the last mystery aircraft being shot down emerged on Sunday night.

It was the third unidentified flying object blown out of the sky in three days, and a week after a balloon equipped with antennae traversed the US before it too was blasted to bits.

The huge intelligence apparatus of the world's biggest superpower is now trying to make sense of it all.

Here are the key questions they will be looking at.

What kind of objects are these latest ones?

The three mystery aircraft shot down in the last few days are very different in size and shape to the large balloon.

This was "the size of a small car" and had been flying 40,000ft (12,000m) in the air as it travelled in the direction of the North Pole without any system of propulsion or control.

It was shot down over Alaska last Friday, 10 February, out of an "abundance of caution" said officials, because it posed a threat to civilian aircraft.

This was described as "cylindrical" in shape and first spotted over Canada's Yukon territory on Friday evening. It was shot down on Saturday.

This was first spotted on Saturday afternoon just north of the US border in Canada but fighter jets scrambled from Oregon were unable to maintain detection of it as the sun set.

The following day it was picked up again in Montana, tracked across Wisconsin and shot down above Lake Huron in Michigan.

Officials have not publicly commented on its shape but one speaking anonymously said it had an "octagonal structure" with no visible sensors.

What was the first balloon really doing?

It was first spotted on 28 January in Alaska, then Montana and later shot down off the east coast on 4 February. The US Pentagon said it was a Chinese spy balloon flying at about 60,000 feet.

Fragments of the balloon landed across seven miles of water and went down 47 feet below the surface.

Recovery crews have been collecting some debris and are using boats and mini-subs to reach further equipment.

US officials have described the balloon in some detail - 60m (200ft) tall and complete with multiple antennas, solar panels and surveillance equipment - but said nothing about what kind of data they believe it was collecting.

The lack of information has provoked criticism from both major parties.

"I have real concerns about why the administration is not being more forthcoming with everything that it knows," said congressman Jim Himes of the House Intelligence Committee.

How many flying objects are there?

These are not the only four objects to make the news in the last couple of weeks.

A balloon was spotted by Colombia's air force and it is believed to have flown across several Latin American countries.

The question is whether there are actually more objects up there or whether improved detection methods are the reason.

After the first balloon was spotted, the radar operated by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) was enhanced to pick up on smaller objects.

As one US official put it to Reuters,"we're definitely looking harder now".

The increase in sightings pre-dates the present saga - a report in January by the US military revealed hundreds of new cases of flying objects in American airspace.

There were 366 new reported sightings in 2022 compared with the previous year. Of these 163 were balloons, 26 were drones and six were described as clutter.

Is this really all to do with China?

Relations between the two countries have deteriorated since the US accused China of using the balloon to spy.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken even cancelled a trip to Beijing.

The US has linked the balloon it shot down in the Atlantic Ocean to a global surveillance programme it says China is behind, putting other countries on alert.

The UK Government said it will do "whatever it takes" to keep the country safe from the threat of spy balloons.

China has accepted responsibility for that first balloon and the one spotted in Latin America but denied they were used for spying, saying they were weather monitoring devices blown astray.

The balloon's destruction in the US "seriously violated international practice," Beijing said, adding that it reserved the right "to use necessary means to deal with similar situations".

It has now accused the US of 10 incursions into Chinese airspace.

At a press conference on Sunday night, the US Air Force commander said he could not explain what the three most recent objects were, how they stayed aloft, or where they were from.

A senior US official told ABC News that these three aircraft were most likely to be weather devices and not surveillance balloons.

Rick Schwartz answers some questions on why he dipped his toe in the .ai pool

So the first real news in domaining of 2024 was that Rick Schwartz started investing in .ai domain names. I asked Rick if he would answer a few questions and he graciously agreed. One point Rick made was this, “I am NOT endorsing .Ai. I am sharing the fact that I am dabbling.”

I think it’s an interesting read and hope you enjoy the interview.

Q1) What made you decide to invest in .ai domain names?

Let me start by saying that my knowledge of Ai in general is limited. I had the same issue when I started with Dotcom. I was late to the game then, I am late to the game now. And for 100% clarity, I am NOT endorsing .ai. I am simply exploring the possibilities and like many of you, trying to guess/predict the future,

Shiny objects don’t attract me until I see critical mass start to gel. I ignore all those hawkers jumping up and down promising to be the next big thing.

I am all about critical mass. That is what gets my attention. When I see something unknown get on the front page daily. Is discussed in the news daily. Is talked about and explored daily by world leaders, and THAT gets my attention. Not some domain pumper with Blue Sky promises that don’t materialize.

Can anyone say that about most other things or even all the new extensions? Critical mass is my guiding light.

Last year XYZ was on the lips of many domainers. This year, .XYZ is on the lips of NOBODY. Domainers or end-users.

Comparing .ai to .xyz illuminates the stark difference that I have observed. .Ai has strong and wide end-user demand not a manufactured demand. One is organically homegrown by the public and the other is grown in a lab by domnainers. Lol 

I invest in Dotcom domains because it’s the most widely advertised item in the history of the world. It’s synonymous with the internet. It’s the foundation of everything online. I believe 999 of the Fortune 1000 have their World Headquarters based on a Dotcom domain. 

Dotcom gets repeated daily billions maybe even trillions of times. Every single day. It’s embedded into our brains. 

So I watched 1300 other extensions come out and after 11 YEARS, nobody knows about, it is under the radar and is invisible. Instead of being mentioned trillions of times a day, it’s only mentioned by domainers for the most part. That does not count! Inside baseball with no audience!

I can hardly see a news report, a political event, or a magazine article without the mention of artificial intelligence, Ai. It’s getting widely known. It’s hitting critical mass overnight. It is mentioned billions of times a day now. It is on the lips of people. That got my attention. I don’t chase shiny objects. I chase objects that hit critical mass, and there is a legitimate demand for not a ginned-up demand like we have seen layout over and over again. Wise up. 

And I don’t question the legitimacy of the sales that are being made. They make sense and are more natural and widespread. You just have to be observant and honest about it.

So I took a calculated risk and decided to put a few dollars in that sector. I will probably put some more. But I’m still a Dotcom guy. However, I can see the adaptation of .Ai to some degree. I also buy domains that end in ai.com because I don’t know how it’s going to shake out.

Q2) .Ai has some interesting terms and conditions. What are your thoughts on this part in specific.

If owner of the site has done any of the above with previous domains (even non .ai domains) we can disable a current domain, (readers can see what all these potential violations are at the following url http://whois.ai/faq.html)

Well, these rules and TOS can definitely be a major pitfall. It can’t be ignored. It’s nice to prevent fraud. It’s another thing to abuse. Sever the power of a business on a whim and put someone out of business. So it’s not without risk. You have to go with your eyes wide open and never get close to the line. There’s no reason to challenge most things in life. So stay away from the foul lines. We will have to observe how the registry handles issues as they come up.

Q3) Do you think .ai will only shine for one word names or do you think that two word .ai domain names can prove to be successful investments?

 I don’t really want to go there. I’m not a proponent. I am an investor. I just share what I am doing in real-time and figure that may have value. But I will say this: Ai domains have different attributes than a Dotcom. Dotcom is very universal. It goes with everything. It’s kind of like a white shirt. You can wear a white shirt with anything you can’t necessarily wear an orange shirt with anything. So Ai domains are a much narrower category of domains that match Ai uses. It’s not universal. At least as far as investing. I had to kind of get my sea legs a little bit when looking for Ai domains. Some of them in the dotcom would’ve been worth unimaginable money, but when I looked at it as a .ai extension, it wasn’t appealing to me. It did not make sense.

I am far from an Ai expert. Some guys have been in it for years. I am dabbling in something that interests me. Time tells all. I can afford the risk. I can afford to expand. I passed up investing in 1300 new GTLDs. They made no sense to me and still don’t. In 10 years not a single one has hit critical mass or even known by the public at large. There simply is very limited demand and most of that demand is misguided since they are FORCED to upgrade to Dotcom once they discover the pitfalls and the traffic loss.

Q4) What cautions would you advise someone new to domaining should take with regards to .ai domain names?

First, I would say, that Dotcom is a much safer bet. Number two, understand the sector and what would be important to end users and why. Number three has an idea for that domain name. If you don’t have an idea when you’re buying the domain name for what it could be used for successfully then don’t buy it. If it does not sound like it could be a World Headquarters, don’t buy it. It’s a Dotcom world so stick with the ONLY Blue Chip extension. Dotcom is the largest franchise in the history of the world. So if you are starting, don’t try and reinvent the wheel. 

Q5) Can you share your favorite .ai purchase?

Do you mean other than DomainKing.Ai? Lol.

Well, let me put it this way. One of the big sectors of Ai is virtual girlfriends. And so I have four female first names ending in Ai. Like Betty.Ai and Selina.Ai for example.

I also got Trick.Ai and Hoax.Ai because so much of the concern about Ai is how easy it is to trick people. So between that and the future of hoaxes, that could be a very busy entity just tracking all the baloney and fakery that’s out there.

I got a couple of gambling domain names and I got names in many price categories. Some of the names were attractive because the prices were very attractive. People seem to like TheBet.Ai and that one I paid the least for, $140.

The future tells all. I planted some seeds. I have said many times before, that my focus is on acquisitions, not sales. If I make the right acquisitions, the sales are the residue of those good decisions and acquisitions. I never focus on sales but I have a pretty good history of 7-figure sales. 

Ai went from zero to Critical mass in a very short time. MONTHS!!  It will only gain in recognition. Compare that to ANY of the new GTLD’s. Do you hear about any of their sectors on the nightly news?? NEVER! Ai has wide and long legs. It will be with us for a very long time. Will that translate into .ai being an alternative? I doubt it. But right now it has traction among END-USERS!! Something GTLD’s never achieved in over a decade!

Most importantly, there is an exploitation component in Ai that everyone is racing to tap into and take advantage of. It is a gateway for personal gain. That is the attraction and the difference. Ai is a defining future category. The rest are simply a gaggle of meaningless extensions. .Ai is focused 100%. The ONLY alternative is a Dotcom.

I also did a Poll on Twitter to see how domain investors think things will shake out.

You can have 3 variations to tap into Ai.

KeywordAi .com (My personal preference) 40.4%

Or

AiKeyword .com (Don’t like as much) 21.3%

Or

Keyword.Ai (Taking a risk but do not endorse) 38,3%

Those are the basic veins one might tap into unless they go for an unrelated but brandable name. .ai certainly held its own.

As a matter of fact, Trick.ai cost me about $25k, I bought an insurance policy from Huge Domains. For $3295 I went out and grabbed TrickAi .com to cover the bases. I tried to do that with Betty.ai but BettyAi .com was listed for $50k, so that was not attractive as an investor.

I have been doing a real-life test for over a dozen years. If you want the REAL answers, walk down the street and without coaxing, ask folks the internet extensions they realize or recognize or know. You will be hard-pressed to find anyone that knows more than about 5. Try it yourself! Don’t be scared of the result. It will help open your eyes.

Ai, Artificial Intelligence has hit critical mass in MONTHS! EVERYONE is dialed in to some degree and recognition is just starting. 

Ai has the ability to be the booster rocket of the internet. The reason it is of interest now and not years ago is I wait for things to start unfolding before I buy into it. Before I chase it. 

I am NOT endorsing .ai or any domains I buy to domain investors. I ALWAYS look at it through the eyes of the end user. They are my focus. My only focus. My job is predicting what THEY will do NOT what domainers might or might not chase.

Even those that start with a .ai extension will likely upgrade in time to a dotcom unless .ai can hurdle the confusion issue. That could happen because of critical mass. But that would also entail .ai to be widely advertised. 

Again, for the record and the haters that can’t help themselves, I am NOT endorsing .Ai. I am sharing the fact that I am dabbling. These same haters like to throw the $200k buy of Flowers.mobi 15 years ago or more in my face. But let me take a moment to expose these haters. None of them could afford a $200k loss and they fail to mention my $100 million in domain earnings along the way like that side of the equation does not count! One loss in 28+ years and THAT is their focus? They are fools with no life, and I live rent-free in their heads. They never miss an opportunity. 

But as haters most are anonymous and without any success to point to. Their job is to hate. That’s all they got. My job is to share. I am NOT trying to sell anything to domainers. I have NEVER sold a domain to a domain investor. I ONLY focus on end-users! So there is no financial motive for me.

If they were smart, they would have learned from my loss and applied it to 1300 other extensions that domainers lost their shirts on listening to those that had monetary skin in the game. They got hoodwinked! End-users got hoodwinked into buying substandard and unrecognizable extensions and then had to deal with the pitfalls, expenses, loss of traffic, and other fallout. Eventually FORCED to move to a Dotcom with a VERY COSTLY rebranding upgrade! That is if they figure it out before they go belly-up!

As I mentioned above KeywordAi .com is my overall choice and probably the best choice for those that want “ai” in their name. 

My dabbling in .ai represents 1/2 of 1% of my 2023 earnings. To put that in perspective, if you were making $100k/year it would be a $640 investment. NOT a big deal at all. The cost of a nice meal and a bottle of wine! Then again you can hand register a Dotcom domain today for LESS than the cost of a Happy meal at McDonalds and probably be better off!