Icahn hopes other bidders emerge for BEA Systems

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Activist shareholder Carl Icahn said on Friday that he is glad that Oracle Corp <ORCL.O made a $6.7 billion bid for BEA Systems Inc BEAS.O, and sees Hewlett-Packard (HPQ.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) as other potential bidders.

"I was a bit surprised, but this will be coming more and more," Icahn said in a telephone interview on CNBC. "I do think there will be other synergistic bidders. I was very surprised, I really was, that there was going to be a bear hug in this one."

(Reporting by Robert MacMillan)