The news as of the second cup of coffee this morning, and the music is the sound I can hear all the way from Philadelphia to here in northern New Zealand... sounds like... 28 years' worth of pent-up cheering...

Oracle has announced an agreement to acquire RuleBurst Holdings, the parent company of Haley Limited, a vendor of policy modeling and automation software, to create an end-to-end product for social services agencies.

It's the belief of Oracle officials that "social service agencies are moving to commercial software to automate entitlements. With limited resources to serve a growing constituency, these agencies need to administer and distribute entitlements consistently and accurately as defined by underlying legislation."

To that end, they say, Haley's policy automation platform "translates legislation and policies into defined, automated rules that are deployed in an application."

Oracle will put it with their ERP and Siebel CRM applications to "create the first packaged software product for social services agencies with an enhanced case management application," using Haley to drive eligibility determinations.

The Haley policy automation platform is also used in other regulated industries, such as financial services and insurance, to implement and manage policies in common language without the need for specialized software programming.

Haley management said they and the company's employees will join Oracle to form a global business unit focused on enterprise policy automation products across multiple industries. Haley's CEO Dominic O'Hanlon is expected to lead the business unit as Senior Vice President and General Manager.

The transaction is subject to stockholder and governmental approvals and other customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the first quarter of calendar 2009. Until the deal closes, each company will continue to operate independently. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Oracle Senior Vice President of CRM, Anthony Lye, said by acquiring Haley, "Oracle is accelerating its investment in public sector to create an integrated product."

Epicor Software has reported financial results for its third quarter ended September 30, 2008. All results should be considered preliminary pending the company's filing of its quarterly report on Form 10-Q.

Epicor President and CEO Thomas Kelly said "customer retention rates remained near all time highs at 94 percent."

GAAP revenue for the 2008 third quarter was $135.8 million, with net income of $3.8 million, or $0.06 per diluted share. This compares to 2007 third quarter GAAP revenue of $103.1 million, and GAAP net income of $8.1 million, or $0.14 per diluted share.

Non-GAAP revenue for the 2008 third quarter was $137.7 million, with non-GAAP net income of $11.3 million, or $0.19 per diluted share.

2008 third quarter non-GAAP license revenue was $22.4 million, compared to GAAP license revenue of $24.1 million in the 2007 third quarter. Non-GAAP consulting revenue was $41.8 million in the 2008 third quarter, which excludes approximately $0.1 million in fair value adjustments for NSB purchase accounting, compared to GAAP consulting revenue $32.8 million in the 2007 third quarter.

The company's balance sheet at September 30, 2008, included cash and cash equivalents of $95.7 million. The balance sheet benefited from free cash flow of $18.7 million during the 2008 third quarter, which helped support a $46.8 million pay down on the company's credit facility during the quarter.

Epicor's total debt balance as of September 30, 2008, consists of $8.5 million in current debt primarily related to the current portion of the company's outstanding term loan from the company's credit facility, which helped to fund the NSB acquisition, and long-term debt of $331.3 million.

At the end of the 2008 third quarter, net accounts receivable was approximately $95.4 million.

The company is updating its 2008 fourth quarter and full-year guidance for non-GAAP revenue, non-GAAP earnings per share and free cash flow expectations due to the uncertainty and limited visibility surrounding the global economy, IT spending and exchange rate fluctuations.

"Any prior guidance provided by the company with respect to the 2008 fourth quarter and full year should no longer be relied upon," company officials said, adding that 2008 fourth quarter non-GAAP total revenue is expected to be $125 to $140 million, with 2008 full-year revenue expected to be $497 to $512 million.

Kana Software has announced financial results for the first nine months and third quarter ended September 30. Their total revenues for the first nine months of 2008 were $51.6 million, a 19 percent increase from $43.3 million in the same period in 2007.

The company's revenues in the third quarter of 2008 were $16.7 million, a 1 percent decrease compared to $16.8 million in the same period in 2007.

License revenue for the first nine months of 2008 was $15.0 million, company officials said, a 16 percent increase over $12.9 million in the first nine months of the previous year. License revenue for the third quarter of 2008 was $5.3 million, an 8 percent decrease from $5.8 million in the third quarter of 2007.

For the fifth consecutive quarter, Kana achieved non-GAAP operating profit and net income. The vendor focused on optimizing the company's cost structure, company officials say, adding that the company "took actions during the quarter that are expected to achieve $2.9 million in annualized savings."

The company reported a net loss in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of $1.1 million, or $0.03 per share, for the first nine months of 2008, compared to a loss of $8.6 million or $0.23 per share for the first nine months of 2007.

For the third quarter of 2008, Kana reported a GAAP net loss of $887,000, or $0.02 per share, versus a GAAP net loss of $1.3 million, or $0.03 per share, for the quarter ended September 30, 2007.

For the first nine months of 2008, Kana reported non-GAAP net income of $1.5 million, or $0.04 per diluted share, as compared to a non-GAAP net loss of $5.6 million, or $0.15 per share, for the first nine months of 2007.

For the third quarter of 2008, Kana reported non-GAAP net income of $863,000, or $0.02 per diluted share, as compared to $156,000, or $0.00 per diluted share, in the third quarter of 2007.

Open Solutions has announced that two credit unions have selected The Complete Credit Union Solution's Standard Market Edition to address their enterprise-wide core processing needs.

TCCUS-sme is described by company officials as "an open, flexible core system, built on a centralized relational database, designed to be a competitively priced product targeted toward the more traditional credit union market."

The vendor sells data processing technologies for banks and credit unions.

Oldham Family Alliance Federal Credit Union in Baltimore and Heritage USA Federal Credit Union in Midland, Texas are the new clients.

Tina Horn, branch manager for Oldham Family Alliance FCU and a woman who's never had anyone drop the "a" from her first name for a groaner, says Open Solutions' "long-term strategic vision" was a factor in selecting its core platform. "As the credit union experienced growth, we realized our current system could no longer meet our needs."

 Betty Seay, CEO, Heritage USA Federal Credit Union, said the thrift has a relationship with Open Solutions, so "when the time came to upgrade from our previous system, they were the natural choice. Our credit union places a lot of emphasis on giving back to the community, and it was clear that a partnership with Open Solutions would help us continue that endeavor."

Open Solutions sells a product platform, integrating core processing with strategic applications such as Internet banking, business intelligence, financial accounting applications, electronic imaging, payment and interactive voice response products.

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