Platinum Technology was happily following the CA model until it itself fell prey to CA's massive recent 3.5 billion US dollar purchase. Sterling Software has also followed the acquisition trail in the past, but it now seems to be making an effort to integrate the technologies it has acquired into its Cool Family and to concentrate on component development. It is also attracting some very talented and experienced software practitioners and recently recorded its 42nd consecutive quarter of revenue and earnings growth. CA, Platinum and Sterling are just some of a handful of successful software company acquirers. Be very cautious about software companies' acquisition of other software companies - much of the time it slows both companies down and often the cultures clash and key staff walk out of the door.
Patterns are about the re-use of ideas in software development.
Object re-use has not really materialised and analysts and pundits are sceptical of an early market for components. People want to buy solutions and progressively they want to pay someone to sort out the solutions,or ideally provide a software service for them.