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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Red Hat (RHT) shares are trading lower in an otherwise upbeat session for tech stocks, after the company last night provided lower-than-expected guidance for its fiscal third quarter ending November.

On its post-earnings conference call, the company said it expects revenue for the quarter of $169 million to $171 million, and non-GAAP profits of 16-17 cents a share. The Street has been looking for $172.4 million and 18 cents.

Asked on the call whether Red Hat is still backing its previous full year guidance, CFO Charlie Peters appeared to back away from the company’s most recent forecast. “We are basically taking, I’d say, each quarter at a time” due to “volatile” interest rates and exchange rates, he said.

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Competition is intensifying in the virtualization sector.

Red Hat (RHT) this morning announced an agreement to acquire Qumranet, an Israeli company that provides a virtualization software platform, for $107 million in cash.

Qumranet’s Web site says that “organizations use Qumranet’s first product, Solid ICE, to host Windows and Linux desktops centrally on servers in the data center.” Investors in the company included Sequoia Capital and Norwest Venture Partners.

The company said the acquisition will not materially increase revenue in the Feb. 2009 fiscal year, but should add “up to $20 million” in revenue in fiscal 2010. Red Hat said the deal is expected to be dilutive to 2009 GAAP EPS by 5-6 cents a share, and to cash flow from operations by 3-4 cents.

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After almost a decade of leading Red Hat, I have decided to transition my CEO and president role for the personal reasons I have already discussed. It’s my privilege to continue serving this great company in the role of chairman of the board. Red Hat will be in the capable hands of a world-class executive team under the leadership of Jim Whitehurst as president and CEO.

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