Ending months and months of speculation that Oracle was going to buy a BI player, today the Redwood Shores software giant acquired Hyperion for $3.3B in cash. This represents a 21% premium to the closing share price yesterday (Wednesday).
Business Objects had been frequently linked to Oracle in takeout rumors and was down 5.6% in the pre-market trading. Cognos, the other player in the space was down 0.4%.
Oracle says that the Hyperion acquisition will help them further bring the fight to SAP's door. Many of Hyperion's 12,000 customers use SAP and now that customer information is going into Oracle.
Oracle's own BI product, itself acquired via Siebel, was a strong contender in basic BI functionality but lacked some key features such as Financial Planning - something CFO's are keen to have and something that Hyperion did rather well. In that sense this is a good fit.
Oracle also stays on the offensive, and gives the wags out there something to write about other than their lackluster previous quarter.
This also sheds light on the relative importance of BI versus infrastructure. I find it interesting that Oracle still has not made a move on BEA but instead acquired Hyperion. Granted, BEA would cost more but still the facts are the facts. Oracle felt its BI needs were senior to its infrastructure needs.
Oracle is trading off 0.9% on the news in the premarket. Update to follow.
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