Oracle to Buy Cloud-Software Provider NetSuite for $9.3bn

New York: Oracle Corp has agreed to acquire NetSuite Inc for $9.3 billion. The major deal will bolster the Oracle’s cloud-computing offerings as it races to catch up to rivals.

According to a report by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Oracle has agreed to pay $109 in cash for NetSuite, a 19 percent premium to the company’s closing price Wednesday of $91.57. The deal is expected to close in 2016, subject to regulatory and shareholder approval.

The deal, among the largest in Oracle’s history, reunites Chairman Larry Ellison with Zach Nelson, NetSuite’s chief executive, who ran Oracle’s marketing operations in the 1990s. Ellison is NetSuite’s largest investor; entities owned by Ellison and his family held nearly 40 percent of NetSuite’s shares, according to NetSuite’s annual proxy statement filed in April.

The deal, among the largest in Oracle’s history, reunites Chairman Larry Ellison with Zach Nelson, NetSuite’s chief executive, who ran Oracle’s marketing operations in the 1990s. Ellison is NetSuite’s largest investor; entities owned by Ellison and his family held nearly 40 percent of NetSuite’s shares, according to NetSuite’s annual proxy statement filed in April.

Both companies provide applications for running a business called enterprise-resource planning software. NetSuite, though, is among the leaders in providing those offerings to customers via subscription-based, on-demand computing.

Oracle said it plans to invest heavily in both products, and that the deal would immediately add to its earnings, on an adjusted basis.

While Oracle has improved its homegrown cloud products, it is battling companies such as Salesforce.com Inc and Workday Inc., which deliver software and storage solely on the web. Oracle also is fighting to keep pace with giants including Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc., which have built large businesses running customers’ computing operations in the cloud.

Separately, NetSuite also reported its quarterly results. Revenue in the second quarter rose 30% to $230.8 million, but its loss widened to $37.7 million from $32.3 million in the year-ago period. Excluding certain costs, such as expenses related to stock-based compensation, NetSuite’s earnings rose to $6.6 million, or 8 cents a share, from $1.7 million, or 2 cents a share.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were expecting earnings of 3 cents a share on revenue of $231 million.