What’s Driving the Latest Wave of Business Performance Management Mergers and Acquisitions?
Business performance management (BPM) as we now know it probably got its start with the 1998 merger of Hyperion Software (financial applications) and Arbor Software (multidimensional database and tools). Hyperion had earlier acquired Pillar to add budgeting capabilities to its existing financial consolidation and management reporting product set. The company resulting from the Hyperion/Arbor merger, Hyperion Solutions, was able to provide a full range of financial performance management solutions coupled with the underlying business intelligence (BI) tools to allow for enhancement and expansion. Hyperion later added Brio to the mix to further flesh out the BI side of the house. This first wave of BPM mergers and acquisitions (M&A) continued with Cognos picking up Adaytum to add a budgeting and planning application to its strong BI foundation. Soon after, they acquired Frango to provide the missing financial consolidation component.
