According to MarketWatch.com, BEA Systems’ board declined Oracle’s $17 per share offer as being too low. From an investment perspective, there’s a game afoot here. Noted billionaire, corporate raider and savvy investor, Carl Icahn, has been gradually buying in to BEA and now has 13% of the company. Carl isn’t keen on the Oracle deal and claimed to be surprised that Oracle went public with it.

Surprised he may have been. Delighted I’m sure he was. No doubt he’s hoping that other bidders will join in a swift auction that will drive up the price. I have no doubt that both IBM and Hewlett-Packard are considering whether BEA is worth bidding for. SAP has already said it has no interest, possibly for fear of indigestion, because it only just consumed Business Objects. But can it really let Oracle buy BEA without a fight?

Unfortunately for Oracle, the market didn’t respond well to its bid, pushing Oracle’s shares down and driving BEA’s shares up to $18.80 – well above Oracle’s bid price. Apparently, BEA has a “poison pill” provision in its bylaws, so Oracle would most likely need BEA board approval for the acquisition to go ahead. Thus, Oracle will have to come in with a more attractive offer and I suspect it will wait for the market to drop back a little before it does.

BEA is “a company in the doldrums” – from an investment perspective – but it has a big corporate footprint and some world-beating software assets, especially in the SOA area, and it also has the awesome Tuxedo TP engine. I guess that’s why Carl Icahn has bought a big piece of it.

BEA is destined to be part of a bigger software portfolio. It’s just a matter of time.