So now that the BEA Systems acquisition is complete, what is next for Oracle? Given Oracle's pattern, it's due for about three acquisitions this spring.This assumption isn't based on scientific analysis or any inside info; it's based on Oracle's history. Last year, it acquired 11 companies. It acquired 13 companies in both 2006 and 2005. So far this year it's made three acquisitions: BEA Systems, Captovation, and technology from Empirix.

In past years its acquisitions have been fairly spread out, presumably for digestive purposes. So that sets Oracle up for at least a few acquisitions this spring. It usually takes something to break a pattern, but what would that be? Oracle's financial performance indicates it's been weathering the turbulence that must occasionally hit from such an acquisitive strategy. So unless there's something going on internally at Oracle we don't know about that would disrupt the pattern, that would mean a few more acquisitions before the dog days of summer.

So what's next? A SaaS company? (I maintain my prediction that Salesforce.com is a possibility.) One in the area of cloud computing infrastructure? Data management or integration? A midmarket or vertical ERP vendor? There's still a few left, like Infor and Lawson.

These are just wild guesses, but it's a fun prediction to bounce around. Who or what do you think Oracle has its eye on?