Oracle has officially announced that they will be acquiring Responsys Inc in a deal worth about $1.5 billion. The deal is expected to be completed in the first half of 2014. Responsys is a cloud-based marketing company, and provider of enterprise-scale cloud based business to consumer software. This purchase will help Oracle become the dominant company in this market.
Brands have been going to Responsys to help manage their email, mobile, social, display, retargeting and other advertising campaigns for years, with great success. They have a number of important customers, including MetLife, jetBlue, Lenovo and City Sports.
Oracle claims that after the deal is completed, they will be the world’s largest marketing cloud company. Oracle already offers a Customer Experience Cloud, where their clients can perform commerce, sales, service, social and more from within the Oracle cloud. This purchase will significantly expand the number and types of services available to their existing clients, and presumably to the clients Responsys will bring with them after the acquisition is completed.
Mark Hurd, the President of Oracle, said “Recognizing the unique needs of the CMO in B2B and B2C industries, the Oracle Marketing Cloud is now the only platform to unite enterprise-class leaders in these historically distinct marketing-automation fields. 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.”
While the deal will still need final approval from regulators, there is no reason to think that there will be any problems in this area. The Oracle board approved the decision to make this purchase unanimously, at a price of $27 per share, in an all cash deal.
What do you think of this purchase? How will it shake up the B2C marketing world in 2014? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
