Oracle Buys RightNow To Strengthen Cloud Push

Cloud-based service provider Oracle has announced that it has entered into agreement to buy RightNow for $1.5 billion (£940m).

The transaction has been approved by the board of directors and is expected to be completed later this year or in early 2012, subject to receiving approval from both RightNow’s stockholders and regulators.

RightNow is a provider of cloud-based customer services and has been acquired as part of Oracle’s strategy to expand its cloud-based services.

The acquisition will strengthen the Oracle Public Cloud, a new business social network unveiled at OpenWorld 2011, aimed at offering companies a more centralised way to obtain cloud-supported applications and infrastructure for their data centres.

Catching up in the cloud

The Oracle Social Network will become the user interface for the Oracle Public Cloud, where companies will be able to control access to their sites in the cloud while users will be able to collaborate on projects and access over 100 Fusion applications.

“Oracle is moving aggressively to offer customers a full range of cloud solutions including sales force automation, human resources, talent management, social networking, databases and Java as part of the Oracle Public Cloud”, commented executive vice president of Oracle development Thomas Kurian, “RightNow’s leading customer service cloud is a very important addition.”

Greg Gianforte, CEO of RightNow added, “RightNow’s products add leading customer experience capabilities that help empower companies to interact with and provide a consistent experience to customers across channels. We look forward to combining our complementary capabilities.”

Although Oracle’s existing customers are expected welcome its new cloud services, some commentators have interpreted the company’s move into the cloud as a catch-up move on all the service providers that have been populating cyberspace with services for over 10 years.