Oracle reportedly won the bid to buy TikTok’s US operations, and Microsoft-Walmart’s joint bid was rejected. Rather than being an outright owner, they are now a “trusted technology provider”.
Oracle, the world’s second largest software company, is a global leader in enterprise software and IT solutions. It is best known for its cloud computing and database packages, but it has also pursued an aggressive acquisition strategy. Oracle’s largest acquisition was PeopleSoft in 2005, but its $28.3 billion purchase of Cerner in 2021 is expected to surpass that.
Oracle has acquired several companies, including Acme Packet, BEA Systems, Hyperion Corporation, MICROS Systems, NetSuite, PeopleSoft, Siebel Systems, and Sun Microsystems. Acme Packet produced session border controllers, security gateways and session routing proxies that enable secure and reliable communication between devices. BEA Systems was acquired by Oracle in 2008 for $8.5 billion, strengthening Oracle’s Fusion middleware software suite. Hyperion Corporation, acquired by Oracle in 2007 for $3.3 billion, provides enterprise resource planning solutions, financial modules, and reporting products. MICROS Systems was acquired in 2014 for $5.3 billion, providing enterprise applications for restaurants, hotels, casinos, and other entertainment businesses. NetSuite was acquired in 2016 for $9.3 billion, expanding Oracle’s cloud services business.
PeopleSoft provided numerous financial and business applications, while Siebel Systems specialised in customer relationship management solutions. Oracle acquired Siebel Systems in 2005 for $5.85 billion, integrating its customer relationship manager into Oracle’s customer experience portfolio. Sun Microsystems was acquired in 2010 for $7.4 billion, which was used to create Oracle Optimized Systems and the first Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud. Sun Microsystems’ own software development portfolio has expanded under Oracle with the release of Oracle Solaris, MySQL and Java.