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Oracle Shopping List: SaaS, Virtualization, Health Care

March 24, 2009
by Eric Savitz
Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily

Eric Savitz

Yesterday’s rumors about a potential acquisition by Oracle (ORCL) of Red Hat (RHT) have apparently faded, but Larry Ellison’s appetite for doing deals is never sated. Whether or not Oracle decides to take a run at Red Hat, it is not going out on a limb to suggest that at some point Ellison is going to get the itch and make more acquisitions.

Research firm Wedge Partners today took a look at the potential targets and came up with plenty of candidates. They think the company is going to enter a more active acquisition period, with most of the focus on smaller venture-backed companies, but adds that they could do “a handful of acquisitions” in the $100 million to $500 million range. And maybe a bigger deal or two. In particular, they see Oracle targeting deals in Software as a Service, virtualization and health-care technology.

Here’s Wedge’s list of potential targets in each of the three sectors:
Software as a Service:

Salesforce.com (CRM): Wedge notes that Ellison was an early investor and still holds his position; CEO Marc Benioff is a former Oracle exec. Wedge contends that “despite the bluster from both companies,” they rarely compete. They assert that Oracle’s SaaS offering is “greatly inferior” to CRM’s.

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