Today, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced its acquisition of MapR business assets. MapR began as a company focused on providing a cloud data platform. They extended their message into machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI), claiming to be good support for data sources needed in those arenas. In addition to the cloud, they focused on a container message for scalability. They had some early backing, but that backing wall pulled earlier this year.
Phil Davis, president, Hybrid IT, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, said in the press release, “MapR’s enterprise-grade file system and cloud-native storage services complement HPE’s BlueData container platform strategy and will allow us to provide a unique value proposition for customers. We are pleased to welcome MapR’s world-class team to the HPE family.”
The press release also focused on the partners in the AI/ML and analytics markets more than it did on the technologies.
What’s interesting to note is that no price was announced for the acquisition. In addition, the stated purpose of working with BlueData, another acquisition focusing on container-based software for AI/ML should make folks wonder about the purpose and benefit of the acquisition. What we have is a second acquisition in the same space, but the MapR one is of a company from with the backers withdrew funding. It is reasonable to assume that HPE acquired it for the connections into the market and not for the technology. Could they have just paid for the lead list and for the partner relations?
From a non-financial evaluation, the larger companies are continuing the fast follower strategy mentioned in my previous article, but MapR didn’t have the presence that OpenAI had, pre-acquisition. I’m sure HPE didn’t pay as much as Microsoft did, but there is still a lot left unanswered in the press release and related material. That means there is no way to evaluate what kind of sense the acquisition makes.
