In recent weeks, some big-name tech execs have said that they think the economy has hit a bottom. On Wednesday and Thursday, some smaller–although still pretty large–software companies reported earnings, and their CEOs were a little less rosy about the end of the recession.

Salesforce.com (CRM) on Thursday reported a 23 percent increase in revenue from the year-ago period. But the company lowered its full year revenue outlook from between $1.3 billion and $1.33 billion to between $1.25 billion and $1.27 billion.

Marc Benioff, CEO of the online-software maker, didn’t sound like a man who believes the worst is over. He said during a conference call that new customers are taking longer to make decisions and that existing ones aren’t expanding the way they historically have. And he balked when asked if the company’s month-by-month performance indicated any trends: “I feel most comfortable really just delivering these aggregate results right now,” he said.

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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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The Internet revolutionized the distribution of software–perhaps a bit too much. The Web brought a new, cheaper method for getting software into the hands of users, but in doing so may have killed one of the best models in Silicon Valley history.

At the outset, the Internet ushered in an exciting new era of corporate software. On-demand computing–its poster child Salesforce.com’s grinning, rosy-cheeked Marc Benioff sporting his once trademark “No Software” button–promised low-priced, convenient delivery of applications.

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