Oracle to buy Responsys for $1.5 billion

Oracle said on Friday that it had agreed to acquire Responsys, an enterprise software company, for $27 a share in cash, or about $1.5 billion, not including debt.

It is the latest acquisition for Oracle, run by Lawrence J. Ellison, and further extends the company's reach into the realm of online marketing. Responsys makes software that allows brands to coordinate their email, mobile, display and social advertising across the Web.

The price amounts to a 38 percent premium above Responsys' closing stock price of $19.52 on Thursday.

"Responsys has always been focused on helping marketers realize their largest opportunity - coordinating their marketing touch points across channels, across the customer lifecycle, and across industries," Dan Springer, chief executive of Responsys, said in a statement. "As a part of Oracle, we will only accelerate our efforts."

The board of Responsys has approved the transaction, but shareholders will have the opportunity to vote on the deal early next year.

"Our strategy of combining the leaders across complementary technologies signifies Oracle's overwhelming commitment to winning and serving the CMO better than any other software company in the world," said Oracle's president, Mark Hurd, referring to chief marketing officers.

Oracle is one of the most prolific acquirers in Silicon Valley. Including Responsys, it has bought at least seven companies this year. Earlier this year, it struck a deal for Acme Packet for $2.1 billion.

Although 10 years ago, its purchases were established software companies with a large customer base, in recent years it has turned to newer-style cloud computing companies that offer their products on a per-use basis, rather than outright sale.

The acquisition of Responsys follows its $871 million purchase a year ago of Eloqua, a company that made software for managing the cost and performance of marketing campaigns. Marketing is a particularly hot area, because companies now use the Internet to run ads, send emails and communicate directly with customers. The large amounts of data captured in these campaigns are analyzed by increasingly math-oriented marketing managers.

Salesforce.com, a cloud-based company that competes with Oracle in sales and marketing software, has in recent years also acquired several ad purchasing and marketing companies.

But Oracle has had a few rough quarters recently, missing analyst expectations twice earlier in the year before posting good quarterly results this week. Those results sent Oracle stock to its highest levels since the dotcom bubble burst more than 10 years ago.

In October, Oracle shareholders opposed Ellison's compensation package, objecting to his $78.4 million payday for the 2013 fiscal year.

Responsys was part of the first wave of technology companies to go public after the financial crisis, debuting on the Nasdaq market in early 2011. After opening near $15, the stock slumped as low as $5.70 about a year ago. But over the past year, the business has strengthened and shares have rallied. Thursday's closing price was near the all-time high.