Oracle, which has been on a cloud-based and B2B marketing software companies buying spree lately, has agreed to acquire Eloqua, a marketing automation Saas company which develops automated marketing and demand generation software and services for business-to-business marketers. Oracle paid $23.50 per share for Eloqua, a 31 percent increase over the company’s closing price of $17.92 yesterday.
The acquisition has been unanimously greenlighted by Eloqua’s board of directors and is expected to close in the first half of next year pending regulatory and Eloqua stockholder approval. In a press statement, Oracle indicated that it is planning to use Eloqua’s assets to build out its multi-channel customer service and lead generation products.
“Modern marketing practices are driving revenue growth and is a critical area of investment for companies today,” said Thomas Kurian, Executive Vice President, Oracle Development. “Eloqua’s leading marketing automation cloud will become the centrepiece 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.”
“Exceptional customer experience starts with knowing your customer’s preferences and delivering a highly personalized buying experience,” said Joe Payne, Chairman and CEO, Eloqua. “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.”
It may be noted that Oracle recently got a leg-up on cloud human resource services when it bought Virtue for $300 million in May, and Involver for an undisclosed amount in July. After noticing its slew of acquiring cloud-based, B2B marketing software companies left and right, it looks like Oracle wants to build the one customer experience service to rule them all.
