Cloud-Based Marketing Automation Company Eloqua Acquired by Oracle

The holiday season is in swing, and following news of Dell's purchasing of Credant Technologies last week, it has now emerged that Oracle has also acquired the provider of cloud-based marketing automation and revenue performance management, Eloqua Inc.

The acquisition within the tech industry was finalized for the price of $23.50 per share (around $871 million total) of Eloqua's cash. This gives Eloqua the opportunity for a do-over, and chance to make improvements.

It remains to be seen if Oracle will overburden Eloqua with an IT-focused sales strategy or if it will be positioned against Salesforce.com. It may also be possible for Oracle to enable customers to deploy better relationship marketing programs faster than was possible using old technology.

A unique and comprehensive Customer Experience Cloud is expected to emerge as a result of the merging of Oracle and Eloqua. It is expected that both companies will make substantial changes towards the way their end-to-end marketing, sales, support and customer service is managed.

A more customized and unified experience will be developed across channels, and interactions in the online and social realms will work in creating brand loyalty. Revenue growth is expected to increase as a result of more qualified leads of sales teams, and a strengthened touchpoint service.

The acquisition has been confirmed by the Eloqua Board of Directors, and will close during the first half of next year, subject to the approval of Eloqua stockholders, specific approvals from regulatory capacities and other relevant closing conditions.

Customers of Eloqua may be concerned about the support for Salesforce.com integration, but should also be inclined to worry a little over native enhancements. Oracle will certainly strengthen Eloqua's offerings through the cross-selling portfolio, but this will incur great costs and complexity for present customers and prospects; the latter may prefer a unified application suite.

This merging signals the move towards more campaign automation, engagement and algorithmically-driven customer dialogue. Oracle evidentially sees the potential of growth in a variety of industry verticals and business models, including entertainment, financial services and customer manufacturing.

The deal gives Oracle a scalable, SaaS-based automation platform, which will be essential for acknowledging and communicating with customers at a time when centralized connectivity, intense post-purchase engagement and elongated paths to purchasing are becoming more commonplace. (CY) Link, Link