Billionaire activist Carl Icahn raised his stake in software maker
BEA Systems (NYSE:BEAS) to nearly 10 percent, according to a
Schedule 13D/A filing with the SEC. The activist investor first disclosed an 8.5 percent stake last week in a
Schedule 13D filing in which he said shares were undervalued and that he planed to meet with management to discuss a possible sale of the company.
BEAS
Systems has been a rumored takeover target for a great time and the
company has repeatedly insisted that it is not for sale. Consequently,
many analysts are skeptical as to whether Icahn will be able to force a
sale of the company unless he takes a larger stake and installs his own
directors to the company's board.
BEA Systems is provider of
enterprise application and service infrastructure software. BEA has
three primary families of products. The Tuxedo product family provides
multi-language enterprise platform. The BEA WebLogic product family
provides Java developers application infrastructure software for
building Web applications, Web services, business processes and
portals, and application integration.
In the end, there are
several potential suitors for a company with products like these;
however, the company has insisted that it wasn't for sale. It will be
interesting to see whether or not Icahn will be able to force a sale
and unlock value. This makes BEAS a stock
worth watching!
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