Users of BEA middleware are facing a period of uncertainty as the promise of a “friendly” takeover by Oracle threatens to turn nasty.

Of course, we have seen this creakily-plotted, woodenly-acted soap opera somewhere before. Oracle even starred in it, alongside a merger partner from the old days, PeopleSoft.

Oracle has typecast itself in the style of the macho early 1980s corporate raider. As with PeopleSoft, BEA is the object of desire: a little past her prime yet still wonderfully attractive to Oracle’s eyes, playing hard to get but needing a generous sugar daddy in order to stay in the game.

The role of the loser here is played by the IT buyer who may have to put up with plenty of supplier posturing before discovering which company they have to work with.

The original Oracle-PeopleSoft story garnered mixed reviews. And what of Fusion – the big finale that all these stories were supposed to feed into? That one is still in production.