Just to reinforce the idea...

... that the hot topic in BI is "intelligence to the masses". Cognos have just acquired a dashboard and operational reporting vendor, Celequest. Interestingly, Celequest also market a BI appliance product, a bit of a departure from the traditional Cognos world

I somehow doubt this will be the only vendor purchase this year. What were the "pure plays" will become more and more impure as they buy up niche players to avert the threat to their traditional markets from the likes of Microsoft and Oracle and then there is the prospect of the big one as one of Microstrategy, Cognos or even Business Objects is consumed by a database vendor itching to boost market share.