Analyst: Open Source No Threat To Oracle Corporation

Oracle Corporation

won't experience a risk any time soon from open-source software vendors, an analyst said Monday. Deutsche Bank's Karl Keirstead said vendors like privately held MongoDB Inc. "don't represent a near-term threat" to Oracle, which is set to post results Wednesday. Keirstead's analysis runs counter to a narrative presented Friday by Bloomberg, which said the threat to Oracle has been around for years, but has recently grown more intense as open-source technology becomes more reliable. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-11/oracle-sales-eroded-as-startups-embrace-souped-up-free-software Bloomberg cited MongoDB as well as the startup DataStax Inc. among open-source database providers who are displacing business long held by Oracle, Microsoft Corporation

and International Business Machines Corp.

. But Keirstead, who recently attended a MongoDB users' conference, said Mongo and its partners are "focused on empowering developers" rather than on signing large deals with corporations. For example, Keirstead said Salesforce.com, Inc.

uses MongoDB in parts of its business "is not even close to displacing it's huge Oracle database deployment." "The near-term Oracle displacement risk seems modest," according to Keirstead, who said database demand, new Oracle products and a shift to subscriptions from licensing are of more near-term importance to the company. Keirstead maintained a Hold rating and $44 target on Oracle. MongoDB raised $80 million earlier this year, giving it a value of about $1.2 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2015/01/09/database-company-mongodb-raises-another-80-million/ DataStax last September raised $106 million giving it a value of about $830 million, according to the Journal. http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2014/09/04/datastax-raises-106-million-in-new-pre-ipo-round-chips-away-at-oracle/ Couchbase Inc., which competes with MongoDB and DataStax, as of last year had raised about $115 million although it declined to disclose valuation. All three companies have said they will go public.