With all the moxie she could muster, my favorite trick-or-treater this year told me, “I'm the Bride of Chucky, in case you didn't know.” And with a toss of her bloody-blonde wig, she was off. So many brides, so little time.

If 2006 in telecom was any indication of things to come, plenty of corporate brides will be taking their walk down the aisle next year (story on page 8). Some, like Chucky's bride, could get bloodied in the process. Others, such as U.K. OSS company Cramer, will get showered with rose petals and dollar bills. Either way, no expert has been heard saying consolidation will slow down anytime soon.

That doesn't mean the rest of the maids of honor can continue playing the field forever. This could be the final go around for many OSS and BSS companies to avoid spinsterhood and attract the sort of dowry they were put on this earth to attract. It will become increasingly difficult for these independent software vendors to apply development and sales resources equivalent to those of the brides who are marrying up. It may not be enough for them to hook up with a Sugar Daddy in the form of some strategic partnership when the brides of Oracle and Amdocs and other bona fide catches are getting sent to finishing school or paraded around the cotillions of Tier 1 carriers as if they were the first ladies of software.

As catty and backbiting as the sorority sisters of mid-sized independent software vendors were to each other, they nonetheless formed a market segment they could be comfortable in had the market remained status quo. Now that the industry is moving again, the sisterhood is breaking up, and all the brides-to-be are scurrying around to make sure they end up as debutantes and not trailer trash.

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