SiliconBeat

In an announcement that surprised exactly no one — and has probably put a grin on the face of Carl Icahn — Oracle (ticker:ORCL) of Redwood Shores announced it had made an unsolicited $6.6 billion bid to acquire BEA Systems of San Jose. BEA has been in Oracle’s scope for several years now, so in some ways, the bid feels like it was always just a matter of time.

In a letter delivered to BEA’s board on Tuesday, Oracle offered to pay $17 in cash - a 25 percent premium on Thursday’s closing price of $13.62. The company confirmed the offer in a press release issued today. In trading this morning, BEA’s stock reached $18.11 a share, a $4.49 or 32.97 percent jump, on speculation that there could be rival bids. SAP? IBM? HP? Who doesn’t love a good bidding war?

Certainy Carl Icahn would. While he hasn’t said a peep yet, Icahn is no doubt rubbing his hands in glee. The uber investor has been buying every available share of BEA stock in recent weeks and pushing the company to sell. As we wrote Thursday, he had spent $663,819,910 to buy 51,820,017 shares of BEA stock, averaging around $12.81 per share. Oracle’s bid would value his stake at $880,940,289, or a profit of $217,120,379.

When was the last time you turned a profit of $217,120,379 in under two months? And if a bidding war erupts…

Meanwhile, according to The Wall Street Journal:

“Oracle has been on a buying spree, spending about $22 billion for 33 software firms in less than three years. Those moves have been widely credited for a 26% rise in earnings in its recently concluded fiscal year and for a 91% rise in the company’s stock price since November 2005, although some analysts have expressed concern that the software giant isn’t getting the most out of the companies it has already bought.”

So what has $22 billion bought them? In the fiscal year ending in May 2004, the company posted $10.2 billion in annual revenue. The next three years: $11.8 billion in 2005; $14.4 billion in 2006; $17.996 billion in 2007. Assuming you can attribute all of those increases to revenue from acquisitions (and you probably can’t), the company has brought in an extra $13.596 billion in revenue.

Meanwhile, Oracle hasn’t filed any paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission yet. But we’ll keep an eye open.

And there’s been no official response from BEA’s board yet. Oracle’s press release said its offer follows years of discussions with BEA. Such unsolicited offers are usually termed “hostile.” Oracle’s press release says it hopes this will be “friendly transaction.”