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-
> library(nzr)
> nzconnect(“user”, “password”, “host”, “database”)
> library(rpart)
> data(kyphosis)
# this creates a table out of kyphosis data.frame
# and sends its data to TwinFin
> invisible(as.nz.data.frame(kyphosis))
> nzQuery(“SELECT * FROM kyphosis”)
KYPHOSIS AGE NUMBER START
1 absent 71 3 5
2 absent 158 3 14
3 present 128 4 5
[ cut ]
# now create a nz.data.frame
> k <- nz.data.frame(“kyphosis”)
> as.data.frame(k)
KYPHOSIS AGE NUMBER START
1 absent 71 3 5
2 absent 158 3 14
3 present 128 4 5
[ cut ]
> nzQuery(“SELECT * FROM kyphosis”)
COUNT
1 81
DECISION STATS 