1:55 PM -- Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL) has had a busy week.

It struck a significant software deal with Indian carrier Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) , landed an OSS deal with Norwegian carrier Lyse Tele AS , signed up 30 application developer partners to create new services on its Service Delivery Platform (SDP), and closed the acquisition of BEA Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: BEAS). (See Oracle Wins at BSNL, Oracle Wins at Lyse, Oracle Closes BEA Deal, Oracle, ZTE Talk SDPs, and Oracle's Higher Price Lands BEA.)

While the BEA acquisition has broad implications in the wider IT world, Gordon Rawling, who recently defected from Amdocs to become senior marketing director at Oracle's Communications Business Unit, told EuroBlog the company is excited about what can be done to bring together Oracle's ongoing SDP work and the experience and expertise BEA has in that particular niche. (See SingTel Uses BEA for SDP, Vodafone NL Picks BEA, BEA Leads NXTcomm's SDP Charge, BEA Touts Middleware Lead, BEA, Huawei Team on IMS, and Oracle Unveils SDP Plans.)

Expect to hear a lot more about Oracle's SDP plans in the coming weeks and months. Oracle Buys Another OSS Firm, Oracle Buys More OSS With MetaSolv, and Oracle Acquires Portal.)

And it doesn't just have market strength -- how many other companies in the OSS world have a market cap of $110 billion?

— Ray Le Maistre, International News Editor, Light Reading