HP software chief says he's not interested in BEA

BOSTON, Nov 21 (Reuters) Hewlett-Packard Co is not interested in buying software maker BEA Systems Inc, which has rejected a takeover bid from Oracle Corp, HP Senior Vice President Tom Hogan said.

BEA is a business partner of HP, and HP's data center management software is designed to support BEA's products. But BEA would not be a good acquisition choice, Hogan said, because HP has similar partnerships with BEA's competitors.

HP maintains such relationships to ensure that its data center management software is capable of working with any type of software that its customers might use.

''We are the Switzerland of these heterogenous environments,'' Hogan said in a phone interview.

''The problem with BEA (is that) I think we would lose our agnostic position and a lot of advantage in the marketplace,'' he said. ''Strategically I think it has a lot of risk associated with it.'' REUTERS DKS BST0432