????12月初，SAP宣布收購SuccessFactors（34億美元，相較交易發生前的平均股價，溢價高達52%），隨后承諾將獨立運營這家小公司。不過SuccessFactors首席執行官拉爾斯?達爾加德被任命負責SAP的全部云計算業務。而銷售團隊也必須相互協作，以獲得成功——話雖如此，但做起來并不容易，因為到目前為止，他們還在互相競爭。

????管理咨詢公司貝恩咨詢（Bain & Company）最近的研究指出，云計算產品最后將比傳統產品便宜3到4成。如此大的成本優勢，IT部門絕不會視而不見，而這最終將會重創所有大型專屬企業軟件供應商。面臨在云計算大潮中不斷失去市場和被邊緣化的危險，收購也許是最好的武器，所以這些公司愿意承擔溢價也就不足為奇了。

????云管理提供商RightScale創始人兼首席執行官麥克爾?科蘭德爾稱：“我不相信云計算泡沫理論，因為這真的是第三次革命（前兩次分別是個人電腦和互聯網的出現）。但不可避免的是，伴隨著這樣的運動，會有一些人或公司激動得過了頭。同時，一些不合格的‘選手’將被淘汰出局。”

????譯者：項航

????In early December, when SAP announced it would buy SuccessFactors (for $3.4 billion, a 52% premium over the average share price in the period immediately before the acquisition) it said it would allow the smaller company to keep running independently. But Lars Dalgaard, CEO of SuccessFactors, will be tasked with running all things cloud at SAP. And the sales teams will need to support each other in order to succeed -- easier said than done since up until now they have competed with one another.

????Ultimately, cloud technologies will be 30% to 40% less expensive than legacy products, according to a recent study from Bain & Company. That's a cost advantage IT departments can't afford to ignore, and a reality that will hit all large, on-premise enterprise vendors at some point. Making acquisitions is probably their best weapon against losing out in the cloud game and becoming irrelevant, so it's no wonder they're willing to pay a premium.

????"I'm not a big believer in the bubble theory of the cloud because this is truly the third revolution [the first two being the advent of the PC and the Internet]," says Michael Crandell, CEO and founder of cloud management provider RightScale. "But it's inevitable that with movements like this there are some people or companies that get overly enthusiastic. And there will be a shakeout of some players who just don't cut the mustard."