The high tech Titans - IBM (IBM), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Oracle (ORCL), Microsoft (MSFT), SAP (SAP) and EMC (EMC) - have been buying software firms at an amazing pace over the last half decade. According to BusinessWeek the tally is: Oracle $30 billion for 56 companies, Microsoft 79 companies, IBM 60 companies, EMC 40, and HPQ 34. Many of these acquisitions have been "tuck-ins" where the Titans have added the purchased company's product capabilities into their product portfolio. This is a time honored practice the Titans and their smaller brethren, have used to expand beyond organic growth and tap the innovative ideas of entrepreneurs.

Although tuck-ins have been a mainstay of software mergers and acquisitions (M&A) for decades, Oracle in the last decade has raised the bar by being successful in acquiring firms of a much larger size and, very much against software etiquette, even completing hostile takeovers. PeopleSoft and Seibel are the two case studies to validate this new approach.

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