Oracle to buy Eloqua for $871 million
updated 09:32 pm EST, Thu December 20, 2012
Oracle buys software maker Eloqua
Oracle has agreed to buy software maker Eloqua for $23.50 per share, or about $871 million, it was revealed today. Eloqua's board has reportedly agreed to the purchase price, which is more than twice the value of the company's initial public offering price in August, and 31 percent higher than its closing price yesterday. The deal will give Oracle more of a presence in cloud computing and bring it into fiercer competition with Salesforce and SAP.
Eloqua makes web-based marketing and revenue-performance management tools, allowing enterprise customers to reduce costs by renting software hosted online as opposed to maintaining it themselves. The Vienna, Virginia-based company's products are aimed at measuring the effectiveness of email marketing campaigns.
Since its initial public offering on August 1, Eloqua's share prices are up 56 percent through yesterday.
Bloomberg reports that its Eloqua's valuation in the deal is in line with other large cloud company acquisitions of recent, even though the $871 million total is more than nine times Eloqua's sales over the last year. Historically, Oracle has paid eight to 10 times a company's recurring revenue in other online software company acquisitions.
