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Oracle’s Newest Acquisition
Oracle announced its intention to purchase RightNow in October shortly after it acquired big data analytics provider Endeca. RightNow’s shareholders approved the deal at the end of December, but the deal could not be completed due to an investigation by the US Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. The Federal Trade Commission granted an early termination of investigation on Wednesday, clearing the way for RightNow and Oracle to complete the US$ 1.5 billion deal.
Oracle already offers a software-as-a-service (SaaS) CRM option, Siebel, which is also available as an on premises solution. However, Siebel is widely viewed as a costly high-end solution. RightNow is used by over 2,000 organizations and its acquisition gives Oracle more strength in the small to medium business market. Oracle will rebrand RightNow as Customer Service Cloud and add it to its existing Oracle Public Cloud offerings:
- Sales Cloud
- Marketing Cloud
- Human Capital Cloud
- Social Network Cloud
- Database Cloud
- Java Cloud
- Data Cloud
- Security Cloud
Adding a customer service SaaS puts Oracle’s Public Cloud in a better position to compete with Salesforce.com. Oracle is positioning Public Cloud as an end-to-end solution for managing business to consumer customer experience.
Getting Additional Details
Additional information about the deal is available on Oracle’s site. Oracle is also holding a live webcast on January 31 at 9:00am PT to provide details on the RightNow/Oracle product strategy. Mark Hurd, President, Oracle and Greg Gianforte, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, RightNow will be presenting in addition to several other executives. Registration for the event is free.
