d acquisitions in each phase of the evolution software market and may also increase the number of software vendors in the market. This development is a result of, among other things, a further increase in the level of standardization of processes and interfaces. In this phase, to acquire specific knowl- edge on software products, software vendors are being bought out. On the other hand, while the software market in growing, the companies operating on it aim to obtain and establish substantial market share. Additional resources and customers are therefore also being acquired. The growth, in addition, raises the interest of compa- nies providing horizontal software for the market. These players aim to cross-sell their products, such as databases or ERP systems, to the customers of vendors they've acquired. The vendors of horizontal software products also enter the market through acquisition to obtain the required knowledge specific to the industry. In the last phase, before the genesis of any new market development lifecycle, one or two of the micro ecologies developed around the interfaces will have gained the position as dominant design(s). Most of the software development is related to these interfaces. In this phase, the degree of productization is high, resulting in price competition among software vendors. On the customer side, investments in soft- ware and their development decrease, which also reflects the downturn for the software vendors. Hence, it is likely that large software vendors are merged to cut high organizational overheads. At the same time, these large vendors seek growth in L. Frank et al. segments which are still growing within the vertical software market and acquire segment specific knowledge and customer equity. It is characteristic for an OSS software system to automate one or many of the vertical telecom processes. The software is usually supported by middleware (such as database, integration and application server software), and it manages data either at the customer or telecommunicatio