IBM buys Project Geronimo

IBM buys Project Geronimo.  More trouble for JBoss,  Sun and potentially BEA.

If I am not wrong then this is a first acquisition of an open source services start-up. It will atleast force many pundits to sit back and ask the question - what's the big deal here ?  Answer lies in the market knowledge - We are not dealing with one market here. There are multiple niches which can absorb  multiple architectures. SugarCRM will not displace Seibel but it will find enough takers to be profitable.  Similarly for Websphere and Geronimo.

Its a coup for IBM since this Geronimo camp has a history with JBoss. 

It's hard to compete with IBM resources - its not impossible but its very hard. With this acquisition IBM is buying a well respected community via which they can do Linux type  patronage-based development model or they can just outsell every open source services startup on the scale and diversity alone.

This space will see more action now.