Does anyone have a positive opinion of Vignette's Epicentric acquisition? My own initial take is mildly negative: EIP and CMS vendors benefit more from "playing the field" with multiple counterparts in the other camp, because most buyers make the decision to buy one or the other fairly independently, and typically at different times. And since, for better or worse (mostly worse), companies who buy both types of packages often pick Portal software first, wouldn't a CMS vendor want to keep its options open?
Sure, Interwoven sells a portal module and Plumtree bought (and rebranded) a tiny CMS, but those serve mostly to provide low-cost options for legacy clients. They typically don't lead with them. In general, this appears to be a continuation of some strategic meandering at Vignette. They're an e-commerce play; no: a CMS, again, with connectors to multiple portals and appservers; no: a proudly full-cycle solution with its own delivery module; and now: a bundled CMS/Portal vendor. I know Gartner is waxing on about "smart enterprise suites" -- and that mantra alone may inspire more M&A activity than the collapse in market caps -- but this one still doesn't make a lot of sense to me. It's too bad, really, because from a purely CMS perspective, Vignette has reinvigorated its offerings in the recent releases, and the new structure of its forthcoming collection of suites (V7) is especially interesting from a price/positioning standpoint. Anyone care to disagree? Cheers, -------------------------------------------- Tony Byrne Founder, Managing Editor CMSWatch http://www.cmswatch.com Silver Spring, MD USA V: 301-585-7004 [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Content Management Matters" -- http://cms-list.org/ trim your replies for good karma.
