MANILA, Philippines -- While the acquisition of BEA Systems shows positive signs for customers, one analyst believes Oracle isn't done yet with its buying spree.

Oracle Corp. last Wednesday announced its acquisition of BEA at $19.38 per share (total value of $8.5 billion), higher than the previous $17 per share bid that was rejected by BEA's shareholders.

David Mitchell, senior VP for IT research at Ovum, noted that Oracle has succeeded with its previous acquisitions on three key factors: integration of go-to market operations, integration with its own products and continued support for existing products following acquisitions.

Mitchell, in his comments issued by Ovum, expects Oracle to continue its success with this latest acquisition.

BEA specializes in middleware, or software that integrates database systems with business applications. Oracle is expected to integrate BEA's technology with that of its Fusion middleware.

Oracle's main competitors in the middleware market include IBM and Microsoft, which likewise carry their own database products. Mitchell expects further consolidation among players in this market.

"It is a hot market, with strong growth and lots of interesting dynamics -- new entrants, new technologies, integration with legacy, evolving standards, etc,” he said. Meanwhile, he predicted that Oracle would be eyeing more acquisitions.

He added: "Oracle's appetite is still not satiated, although the volume of medium- to large-scale targets on the market is now reducing. Expect the next moves to be in the industry-specific applications category."