Editing BEA Systems (section)

== History ==
BEA began as a [[software]] company, founded in 1995 and headquartered in [[San Jose, California]]. It grew to have 78 offices worldwide at the time of its acquisition by Oracle.

The company's name is an [[initialism]] of the first names of the company's three founders: [[William T. Coleman III|Bill Coleman]], [[Edward W. Scott|Ed Scott]], and [[Alfred Chuang]]. All were former employees of [[Sun Microsystems]], and launched the business in 1995 by acquiring Information Management and Independence Technologies. These firms were the largest resellers of ''[[Tuxedo (software)|Tuxedo]]'', a distributed transaction management system sold by [[Novell]]. BEA soon acquired the Tuxedo product itself,<ref name="tuxedo_history">{{cite book
|title = The TUXEDO System: Software for Constructing and Managing Distributed Business Applications
|author = Andrade, Juan M.
|year = 1996
|publisher = Addison-Wesley
|isbn = 0-201-63493-7
|pages = xxxiv
|display-authors = etal
|url-access = registration
|url = https://archive.org/details/zdanh_test_031_tuxedosystemsoft00juan
}}</ref><ref name="tuxedo_pr">{{cite press release
|title = Novell and BEA Systems, Inc. Complete Transition of TUXEDO to BEA
|publisher = BEA Systems, Inc.
|date = 1996-02-28
|access-date = 2008-04-07
|url = http://www.bea.com/framework.jsp?CNT=pr00002.htm&FP=/content/news_events/press_releases/1996
|quote = BEA is the exclusive developer and distributor of the TUXEDO System on UNIX, NT, and all non-NetWare platforms, and Novell will develop TUXEDO-based applications for NetWare. In addition, most Novell TUXEDO employees, including development and marketing personnel, have joined BEA, and BEA has assumed all contracts with TUXEDO partners, distributors, and customers. BEA has exclusive rights to the TUXEDO trademark.}}</ref> and went on to acquire other middleware companies and products.

In 1998, BEA acquired the [[San Francisco]] start-up [[WebLogic (company)|WebLogic]], which had built the first standards-based Java application server. WebLogic's application server became the impetus for the Sun Microsystems' [[Java Platform, Enterprise Edition|J2EE]] specification and formed the basis of BEA's WebLogic application server sold today.{{Citation needed|date=June 2020}}

They were a sponsor for Team Rahal (now [[Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing]]) from 2002 to 2008, which included Buddy Rice's [[2004 Indianapolis 500]] win and Vitor Meira's [[2005 Indianapolis 500]] runner-up finish.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-11-30 |title=Team History |url=https://rahal.com/team-history/ |access-date=2023-01-05 |website=Rahal Letterman Lanigan |language=en-US}}</ref>

In 2005, BEA launched a new brand identity with the slogan "Think Liquid.".<ref name="think_liquid_launch">{{cite news
|title=BEA Systems Launches New Brand Identity, Challenges IT Industry to "Think liquid."
|publisher=Lexdon Business Library
|date=2005-06-09
|url=http://www.lexdon.com/article/BEA_Systems_Launches_New_Brand/7158.html
|access-date=2008-03-25
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927011500/http://www.lexdon.com/article/BEA_Systems_Launches_New_Brand/7158.html
|archive-date=2007-09-27
|url-status=dead
}}</ref> BEA also announced a new product line called AquaLogic, which is an infrastructure software family for [[service-oriented architecture]] (SOA). The same year, it made its entrance into [[telecommunications]] infrastructure through the acquisition of [[Incomit]], a Swedish telecommunications software provider.<ref name="news.cnet.com">[http://news.cnet.com/BEA-buys-Incomit-to-beef-up-telecom-software/2100-1014_3-5513815.html BEA buys Incomit to beef up telecom software]</ref> In late 2005, the company announced the acquisitions of Compoze Software, a provider of collaboration software,<ref name="compoze_pr">{{cite press release
|title = BEA Completes Acquisition of Compoze Software
|publisher = BEA Systems, Inc.
|date = 2005-07-23
|access-date = 2005-07-23
|url = http://weblogic.sys-con.com/node/111598
|quote = Compoze Software also enables portal customers to easily integrate Instant Messaging applications from Yahoo!, Lotus Sametime and Microsoft Live Communication Server, as well as the ability to incorporate threaded discussions and group "white-boarding" to any portal.}}</ref> M7, an [[Eclipse (software)|Eclipse]]-based tools company,<ref name="m7_pr">{{cite press release
|title = BEA Takes Aggressive Step to Further Leadership in Developer Tools Market; Acquires Eclipse-based Company M7
|publisher = BEA Systems, Inc.
|date = 2005-09-28
|access-date = 2008-04-10
|url = http://www.bea.com/framework.jsp?CNT=pr01529.htm&FP=/content/news_events/press_releases/2005
|quote = M7 offers an Eclipse-based Integrated Development Environment (IDE) called NitroX that offers unparalleled support for the development of sophisticated web applications based on open source and industry standard frameworks, including Struts, Hibernate, Java Server Faces and JavaServer Pages.}}</ref> and SolarMetric, editors of the ''Kodo'' [[persistence (computer science)|persistence]] engine.<ref name="solarmetric_pr">{{cite press release
|title = BEA Systems Acquires SolarMetric, Inc.; Grabs Lead in Java EE 5 and Persistence Race
|publisher = BEA Systems, Inc.
|date = 2005-11-03
|access-date = 2008-04-10
|url = http://www.bea.com/framework.jsp?CNT=pr01548.htm&FP=/content/news_events/press_releases/2005
|quote = SolarMetric, widely respected for its persistence technology around JDO, will help BEA achieve faster time to market with its flagship WebLogic Server product.}}</ref>

The acquisitions continued in 2006 with [[Plumtree Software]], an enterprise portal company; Fuego, a [[business process management]] (BPM) software company; and Flashline, a [[metadata]] repository company. These acquisitions have since become parts of the AquaLogic SOA product stack.

On October 12, 2007, [[Oracle Corporation|Oracle]] announced their intent to buy BEA Systems for [[United States dollar|$]]6.7 billion.<ref name="Oracle">{{cite web |url=http://www.king5.com/business/stories/NW_101207BUB_oracle_bea_systems_offer_JM.162b691c8.html |title=Oracle offers $6.7 billion for BEA Systems |access-date=2007-10-12 |date=2007-10-12 |agency=[[Associated Press]] |publisher=[[KING-TV]] |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071014005222/http://www.king5.com/business/stories/NW_101207BUB_oracle_bea_systems_offer_JM.162b691c8.html |archive-date = 2007-10-14}}</ref> As a result of the offer, BEA's stock price rose over five dollars upon the opening of trading for the day.<ref name="Stock">{{cite web|url=https://www.google.com/finance/?source=finance |title=BEA Systems, Inc. stock price |access-date=2007-10-12 |date=2007-10-12 |publisher=[[Google Finance]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071016095626/http://finance.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ%3ABEAS&source=finance |archive-date=16 October 2007 |url-status=live }}</ref> BEA turned the offer down the same day, saying that the company is "worth substantially more".<ref name="offer_turned_down">{{cite news
 |first=Jim
 |last=Finkle
 |title=BEA rejects $6.7 billion Oracle offer
 |url=https://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071013/bs_nm/beasystems_oracle_dc_8
 |publisher=[[Yahoo! News]]
 |date=2007-10-12
 |access-date=2007-10-15
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071016201710/http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071013/bs_nm/beasystems_oracle_dc_8
 |archive-date=2007-10-16
 |url-status=live
}}</ref> On January 16, 2008, Oracle signed a definite agreement to buy BEA for $8.5 billion. It is believed that [[Carl Icahn]], one of the company's most prominent shareholders, was the main reason that the deal happened.<ref>{{cite news
|last=Turton
|first=Stuart
|title=Oracle finally bags BEA
|publisher=PC Pro
|date=2008-01-16
|url=http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/156582/oracle-finally-bags-bea.html
|access-date=2008-03-25| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080321034243/http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/156582/oracle-finally-bags-bea.html| archive-date= 21 March 2008 | url-status= live}}</ref>

On April 29, 2008, Oracle completed its acquisition of BEA.<ref>
[http://www.bea.com/framework.jsp?CNT=management.htm&FP=/content/about/corporate/ Corporate Information: Management and Board of Directors]
</ref>