Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) president Safra Catz, who is in Israel as a guest of Oracle Israel and "Globes", spoke at the annual Oracle Day, discussing recent and future acquisitions.
Catz, possibly inspired by Oracle founder and CEO Larry Ellison, said, "Our job is to build you a car", referring to an entire enterprise automation system.
She spoke of a "New Oracle", the company that will come about after completion of the acquisition of Sun Microsystems for $7.4 billion. "We decided that there are only two ways in which we can build a complete car, and not just supply the parts for you to put together: Either we build it in-house, and have to spend a lot on research and development, or we can buy many little pieces and make them work together."
Oracle has apparently chosen to go on an aggressive buying spree, which up until now has proven itself. In the past four years, the company has made about 52 acquisitions at a cost of $4 billion. Regarding continued acquisitions, Catz said that the most recent one did not lessen Oracle's appetite for acquisitions - in fact, it did the opposite.
And what of acquisitions in Israel? Oracle has so far acquired one Israeli company, Demantra, in 2006, and has a development center in Israel. Catz said she will be happy if Oracle buys more in Israel, adding, "We are actually looking at something in Israel right now."
Although it is feasible that a general comment like that would be relevant almost anytime over the last five years.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 17, 2009
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