An analyst says Oracle, SAP, or HP may try to outbid IBM's $1.2 billion offer.

A San Francisco-based analyst, in a note Wednesday, suggests IBM's planned acquisition of business-intelligence software vendors SPSS Inc. is not a done deal.

"Conversations lead us to believe that SPSS could get another bid," said Cowen & Co.'s Peter Goldmacher in an investor's note.

Goldmacher wrote that "conversations with industry luminaries" indicate IBM's $ 1.2 billion bid for SPSS last week was a "dramatic premium" to avoid a bidding war with other interested parties, including SAP and Hewlett-Packard. But that strategy may not work.

Cowen & Co. hasn't "ruled out the possibility" that potential acquirers will come after SPSS with an unsolicited offer," Goldmacher wrote.

Goldmacher doesn't mention Oracle, but in a follow-up email, confirmed that Oracle could be a potential suitor of SPSS.

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