Is Oracle Buying IDS Scheer?

IDS Scheer is, or was for a large part of its history, nearly synonymous with SAP. The two companies started working together more than 20 years ago, when IDS Scheer's business process modeling software (in whatever iteration it was way back then) worked with SAP's R/3 software. Several years ago the two companies announced that SAP would integrate IDS Scheer's Aris process modeling platform into its NetWeaver integration platform. But in the past two years or so IDS Scheer has broadened its horizons, bringing in a number of partners on the platform (and in Oracle's case, applications) front. In addition to Oracle, IDS Scheer has forged partnerships with IBM, Microsoft, BEA and Fujitsu, with more to come, according to the company's new CEO and president, Thomas Volk. While IDS Scheer (and SAP) talks about the deep integration between Aris and NetWeaver, the truth is, according to one analyst that I...