IBM Takes Its Chances with EnterpriseDB

Question: Not long ago, you announced that IBM joined existing investors for EnterpriseDB's third round of venture funding. Why did IBM get involved this time?

Astor: IBM does not typically invest in companies. They do invest in open source projects from time to time, but I think they saw an opportunity with us. They've got their Linux bet made. They've got their Apache bet made. They've got their Geronimo bet and their Eclipse bet, all the way up the stack, but they haven't really made a statement about the database yet.

With Sun's recent acquisition of MySQL and the fact that IBM is a big fan of truly enterprise-class open source technology - particularly when it's mature and there's relatively little differentiation among vendors, I think it just made a whole lot of sense for IBM to place a bet and take a small stake in EnterpriseDB to get involved and impact the Postgres community. EnterpriseDB has emerged over the last couple of years as the leading Postgres company. I say that because we have more core team members and committers and thought leaders, and we are developing more features for the community than any other company. Looking for a way to invest in Postgres, I think it just made sense for IBM to come and chat with us.

Question: If I may ask, did EnterpriseDB approach IBM, or did IBM approach EnterpriseDB?

Astor: I think it's fair to say that IBM contacted us to engage in partnership conversations, which we engaged in happily, and when we let them know that we were raising a Series C, they had some interest in participating in that. That is pretty rare, by the way. They don't generally invest in companies.

But we were very interested, frankly, in having their brand behind us. I think it helps tremendously for a young company to be endorsed, if you will, by IBM, and they get to participate in a very rapidly growing commercial open source company at a bargain price.

Question: What does having IBM's brand behind it do for EnterpriseDB? What doors does it open?

Astor: Recently, MySQL, which is also a very small company but somewhat bigger than EnterpriseDB, was acquired by a Fortune 500 company. That, I think, changes the way the market looks at MySQL. Similarly, I think having IBM invest in EnterpriseDB changes the way the market looks at us. I think it's fair to say that the open source database space is really now a two-horse race. The press that we've gotten and the interest that we've gotten since we made the announcement is indicative of a different place in the market.