Oracle has announced that it will acquire Portal Software.
Cupertino, California-based Portal Software has agreed to the acquisition. It has been struggling financially and in the last full year made a loss of $40.2 million on revenue of $126.8 million. In its most recent quarter, it made a loss of $19.4 million on revenue of $27.7 million.
Oracle intends to use the functionality to expand its communications and media vertical industry offering, enabling it to offer end-to-end functionality via the combination of its ERP, CRM, and infrastructure software, and now Portal’s billing and revenue-management solution.
Communications and media providers are under pressure to offer converged services and to be able to rapidly create, deliver, and bill for new service packages, which is driving the need to streamline operational and accounting functionality, and the telco market is one of Oracle’s target verticals.
Sergio Giacoletto, EVP of EMEA at Oracle, said acquisitions are geared to enable Oracle to build a comprehensive portfolio of applications for its targeted industries. He said the telco industry is commanding Oracle’s attention because it is seeing an uptick in CRM spending as a result of intense competition and complex service requirements, and is now facing a technology-renewal phase.
The acquisition could cause some distress within the industry because Portal Software has relationships with several vendors, notably SAP. In February, SAP and Portal joined forces to marry Portal’s Revenue Management software with SAP’s contract accounting functionality in a package aimed at the telco market. It is unclear what will happen to this agreement.
Like Oracle, SAP has also targeted the communications sector as a key vertical. The two clashed over the retail sector where Oracle appears to have moved ahead, with several acquisitions under it belt that comply with its aim of building a comprehensive portfolio within a targeted vertical. The same picture could now be emerging in the communications vertical.
