Oracle’s Billion Dollar Marketing Cloud Push
Oracle has purchased Responsys for $1.5 billion dollars. This move was orchestrated so Oracle could better promote its products that utilize the Software as a Service model. Oracle can also leverage Responsys in efforts to capitalize on their Infrastructure as a Service and Databases as a Service models which could also prove to be high margin profit streams. Responsys’s website says that it is a company that specializes in “New School Marketing.” Their colorful, eye-catching website design is a testament to their expertise. Responsys released a statement on their website regarding the acquisition by Oracle:
“As a part of the Oracle Marketing Cloud, we’ll be able to accelerate our vision of giving marketers across all industries the most advanced platform for orchestrating customer experiences over time and across channels. We couldn’t be more thrilled about what this means for our customers and employees.
The proposed transaction is subject to Responsys stockholders tendering a majority of the outstanding shares and vested equity awards, certain regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions, and is expected to close in the first half of 2014.”
With the acquisition of Responsys, Oracle looks to gain market share in what is currently dominated by SalesForce. This is not the first billion dollar acquisition by Oracle. As you may remember, Oracle scooped up Sun Microsystems a few years ago. Depending on who you ask, the transition did not seem to go as well as some had planned. Oracle has learned some hard lessons along the way and the important thing is that they seemed to have learned from it.
Oracle produced a higher than expected profit for its shareholders as noted in their after market earnings call. The very next day, Oracle’s legendary CEO Larry Ellison decided to exercise one of his so called “Options” as he and his board decided to drop a billion and a half dollars to acquire Responsys. Cloud analysts say that this signifies the first shot in what may be a decade long war against SalesForce. 2014 looks to be an exciting and lucrative year for Oracle.
