IBM just bought Netezza (maker of Twin Fin appliance) for handling big data.
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/20/i-b-m-to-buy-analytics-firm-for-1-7-billion/?hpw
The deal values Netezza at $27 a share, a 9.8 percent premium to its closing price on Friday.
Since Netezza was an existing SAS partner, probably it would impact it more if at all, since IBM-SPSS acquisition. Also Netezza was one of the foremost BI companies for both using and expounding R-
See- Using Netezza and R http://www.biecek.pl/WZUR2009/LukaszBartnik2009c.pdf
and http://www.netezza.com/userconference/pce.html#rmftfic
Below a paper on using R on Netezza-



