(By Balaseshan) Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) said it has agreed to buy Eloqua Inc. (NASDAQ: ELOQ), a provider of revenue performance management software, for about $871 million, net of Eloqua's cash.
Oracle will pay Eloqua $23.50 per share, representing a 31.1% premium to Eloqua's previous closing price. Eloqua is a provider of cloud-based marketing automation and revenue performance management software.
"Eloqua's leading marketing automation cloud will become the centerpiece of the Oracle Marketing Cloud and is an important addition to the Oracle Customer Experience offering, which includes the Oracle Sales Cloud, Oracle Commerce Cloud, Oracle Service Cloud, Oracle Content Cloud and Oracle Social Cloud," said Thomas Kurian, Executive Vice President, Oracle Development.
Eloqua's modern marketing cloud delivers best-in-class capabilities to ensure every component of marketing works harder and more efficiently to drive revenue.
The combination of Oracle and Eloqua is expected to create a comprehensive Customer Experience Cloud offering to help companies transform the way they market, sell, support and serve their customers.
The combined offering is expected to enable organizations to provide a highly personalized and unified experience across channels, create brand loyalty through social and online interactions, grow revenue by driving more qualified leads to sales teams, and provide superior service at every touchpoint.
"Together with Oracle, we expect to accelerate the pace of the modern marketing revolution and help our customers transform the way they market, sell, support and serve their customers," said Joe Payne, Chairman and CEO, Eloqua.
The Board of Directors of Eloqua has unanimously approved the transaction. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2013.
ORCL closed Wednesday's regular session up 3.68% at $34.09, while ELOQ ended down 3.66% at $17.92.