Need examples? eRoom was once its own company, separate from Documentum. PDF Aqua was developed by Computerized Document Control, later known as CDC Solutions.

So what does this say for the Documentum and Captiva now that they've been acquired by EMC? Similar integration, we're sure. In fact we have already heard some say that Documentum is irrelevant without Captiva. This should delight EMC whose tagline is "EMC - Where Information Lives."

Pretty soon Documentum will be to EMC Software as eRoom is to Documentum. This is, of course, not a bad thing, just different.

So, if you're wondering what kind of impact EMC Software/Documentum's most recent acquisition will have, take a good look at its latest acquisition, xHive

What is xHive? According to xHive's pre-EMC tag line, it provides "fresh thinking for data management solutions."

What does that fresh thinking render? Data management rather than document/content management.

According to Alan Pelz-Sharpe, when xHive becomes integrated into Documentum "it will add a new repository to Documentum's current architecture."

Pelz also notes that the acquisition is a change of course for EMC, "whose Documentum group has long taken pride in it's own compound document management capabilities."

And maybe EMC isn't too proud that they're "buying" rather than "building" in this case.

Why do I say that?

There's no mention of the acquisition in EMC's 2007 earnings release

Dave Kellogg, the CEO of Mark Logic Corporation, which develops and markets an XML content server, finds the PR around the xHive acquisition odd. To read his take on the PR handling, read here.