Oracle + ProfitLogic : Logic Not Against SAP but IBM!!

Jesse Owens writes,Oracle's purchase of the small retail-software maker isn't about competing with SAP , but it’s about competing with IBM.Oracle seems to be very about the retail space. Retailers are now spending more on technical infrastructure - this is the fundamental driver behind Oracle's purchase of ProfitLogic. Past waves of automation in the sector have focused on the warehouse and the checkout counter. Now retailers are turning their eyes to merchandising and marketing, where decisions about what to buy and how much to stock have for too long been based on gut instinct, not hard numbers. (ProfitLogic's software helps companies decide when and how much to mark down slow-moving goods, a tricky matter that's critical to keeping profits up.)
Oracle seems to have kept away a good buy prospect form its competitors and has poked a hole in IBM's software strategy, which is to partner with the makers of business-specific applications rather than to buy them. IBM focuses on middleware while working with third party business applications. JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, and Retek had embraced IBM's middleware -until Oracle bought those companies too.. In any event, it's a good time to be a small company in the enterprise-software business. Either you get a buyout offer from Microsoft , Oracle, or SAP, or IBM courts you with lavish technical and marketing support. The potential downside, of course, is that one of the giants buys a competitor, and you find yourself competing with a sales force that numbers in the thousands.
I see a good reasoning behind Sramana Mitra’s assesement that Oracle shall move definitely begin to look at a major WMS player – identified as Manhattan.Oracle certainly needs a strong presence in this nearby space co-residing along with Oracle WMS. We have to wait and see whether Larry's claim of usingGE like approach in integration of companies