Oracle's AmberPoint acquisition first take

I was asked in ebizq SOA forum:

What Do You Think of Oracle Buying AmberPoint?

My answer in the following lines is my First Take of that acquisition.
AmberPoint is a very small vendor who has a remarkable Run Time SOA Governance product. Its offerings includes also SOA Management solutions and lately also Transactions Run Time Governance products. It was a matter of time until one of the mega companies will acquire it.
The natural candidate for acquiring it was its closest partner Microsoft.
I think that Oracle acquired it in order to fill a gap in its SOA portfolio (BEA licensed AmberPoint's products prior to being acquired by Oracle), but the main reason for that acquisition is beyond SOA.
Executing Oracle strategy requires Network and Systems Management (NSM) solutions even before the Sun acquisition. After the Sun acquisition an NSM solution is a must. Oracle's sales men are talking about management solutions at least four or five years, but unfortunately its NSM products are limited. AmberPoint is a part of more comprehensive NSM solution. The growing competition with IBM and HP is a drive for building an NSM suite similar to IBM's and HP's. Currently the NSM leaders are IBM, HP, CA and BMC. As far as Web Services management is concerned their is a another leader: Amberpoint joining the four leaders mentioned above.
I will not be surprised if BMC will be the next Oracle's target acquisition.
As far as SOA Governance is concerned their are still independent vendors such as: SOA Software, Actional and Layer3 and Layer7.
Read other expert's opinions in the ebizQ SOA Forum page.