Oracle
Corp is likely to buy Micros Systems in a $5 billion deal, expected to
be announced as early as Monday morning, the Wall Street Journal
reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.
The takeover would value Micros at more than $67 a share, the newspaper said.
Micros
Systems makes point-of-sale hardware and software for restaurants and
hotels. Oracle has been rolling out its own cloud-based products and
acquiring smaller cloud companies such as marketing software maker
Responsys Inc.
The deal, if confirmed, would be Oracle's largest acquisition since it bought Sun Microsystems for $5.6 billion in 2009.
Bloomberg
reported
last week that the companies were in exclusive talks.
Oracle and Micros Systems could not be immediately reached for comment outside regular U.S. business hours.
Last
week, Oracle posted
fiscal fourth-quarter results that disappointed investors looking for
more progress against rivals selling web-based services, sending its
shares lower.
Reflecting expectations of a pickup in its software
business and progress in cloud computing, shares of Oracle had gained 10
percent over the past three months, double the S&P 500's increase.
But Thursday's results cast doubt onto Oracle's execution in an industry facing increasingly tight competition.
"It's
a bit of a jaw-dropper, in terms of Oracle missing results across the
board in its historically strong fiscal year-end quarter," said FBR
analyst Dan Ives. "It's like Spain getting knocked out of the World Cup
in its first week."
Smaller, aggressive companies like
Salesforce.com Inc and Workday Inc have been offering competitive
software and Internet-based products at prices that often undercut
Oracle.
Oracle's meager quarterly results underscore soft spending
across the enterprise technology industry. Spending could become even
more restrained as companies around the world move away from operating
their own IT departments in favor of cloud services that cost less, said
Summit Research analyst Richard Williams.
No comments:
Post a Comment
What's Your Opinion