Stories about: Retek

Oracle intends to make another vertical-market acquisition, announcing plans Wednesday to offer about US$220 million to acquire Portal Software, a maker of billing and revenue management software for the communications and media industry.

With nearly 300 brand-name products sold around the world, Procter & Gamble is renowned for its innovation. Throughout its 169-year history, the consumer products giant has applied its technological know-how to everything from super-absorbent nappies to structured paper towels.

SAP plans to acquire Khimetrics, a U.S. customer-demand management software vendor with a focus on the retail market. The move follows the Germany-based ERP (enterprise resource planning) company's September announcement that it would purchase retail player Triversity, which specializes in selling customer-centric, point-of-sale software.

The Siebel acquisition will be the last major purchase in Oracle's shopping binge, CEO Larry Ellison told an audience of thousands at Oracle OpenWorld 2005 on Wednesday. "

Oracle kicked off the second day of its OpenWorld user conference with an acquisition, scooping up Global Logistics Technologies (G-Log) for an undisclosed sum Oracle said Tuesday. Oracle plans to use G-Log's logistics software to boost its supply-chain management technology offerings.

Nine years ago Jan Baan, founder and chairman of the now defunct Dutch ERP firm Baan had this to say about middleware: "Middleware is like underwear, I like it, but I like not (sic) to show it."

Oracle's past year has been full of drama and landmark acquisitions, but company President Charles Phillips adopted a conservative tone for his Monday morning keynote address opening this year's OpenWorld conference for Oracle's customers, partners and developers. His low-key speech outlined Oracle's open, standards-based product development plans and the Fusion architecture it's developing to integrate functionality from its ever-expanding collection of business applications.

Business application vendor SAP has agreed to acquire privately held Triversity, a Canadian company specialized in software for the retail industry.

SSA Global Technologies has lately been on a buying spree of enterprise application vendors that rivals Oracle's, in deal frequency if not size. The once-bankrupt ERP (enterprise resource planning) vendor is amassing an eclectic portfolio that analysts say positions it as an emerging major player in the changing back-office applications market.

Oracle will buy a majority stake in Indian banking software vendor i-flex Solutions, the latest in a string of acquisitions designed to strengthen the U.S. company's applications business, Oracle announced Tuesday.

Another wave of sudden consolidations has hit the business intelligence and analytics world.