Oracle said Monday it has acquired Oblix, a privately held identity management technology developer, for an undisclosed sum. Oracle said it will move quickly to integrate Oblix's security products with its own infrastructure software.

Nine-year-old Oblix's product portfolio includes CoreID for identity management, identity federation server software ShareID, and CoreSV for managing Web services. Oracle said it will continue to sell Oblix's products as stand-alone software, while it also integrates Oblix's features into its own technology stack.

Oblix has about 100 employees, and almost all will be extended job offers at Oracle, according to an Oracle spokesman. Oblix's staff will be gradually moved to Oracle's Redwood Shores, California, headquarters, he said.

Oracle plans to hold a conference call Tuesday to further discuss the acquisition, with its senior vice president of its Server Technologies group, Thomas Kurian.

After years of spurning acquisitions as a viable growth option, Oracle has been on a shopping spree lately. In December it spent US$10.3 billion to buy rival applications developer PeopleSoft, and last week it signed a deal to buy retail applications maker Retek for US$630 million. Oracle Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Larry Ellison said last Tuesday that Oracle had no plans for any major acquisitions this quarter.