Oracle buying Acme Packet

An Acme Packet Inc. sign marks the company’s headquarters in Bedford, Mass. on Monday.

An Acme Packet Inc. sign marks the company’s headquarters in Bedford, Mass. on Monday.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

— Oracle Corp., the second largest maker of business applications, has agreed to acquire Acme Packet Inc. for $2.1 billion, gaining technology that helps corporations securely transmit information over the Internet.

Oracle will pay $29.25 a share in cash, according to a statement Monday. That marks a 22 percent premium over Acme’s stock price on Friday, the last trading day before the deal was announced. Excluding Acme’s cash, Oracle is paying $1.7 billion.

Oracle has spent more than $40 billion on more than 70 acquisitions since 2005 as Chief Executive Officer Larry Ellison works to augment its traditional business applications that run over companies’ own servers with cloud-computing products it can deliver over the Web. Acme’s tools help securely deliver voice, video and data over Internet protocol networks, pushing Oracle deeper into networking technology - a market that’s benefiting from the boom in mobile devices.

“The communications industry is undergoing a dramatic shift as users become more connected and dependent on mobile applications and devices,” Bhaskar Gorti, senior vice president and general manager of Oracle Communications, said in the statement. “Service providers and enterprises need a comprehensive communications solution that will enable them to more effectively engage with their customers.”

Acme shares surged $5.66, or 24 percent, to close at $29.59, while Oracle Corp. shares fell $1.08 to $35.13.

Shifting to cloud software lets companies save money by renting applications online rather than installing and updating it themselves.

Oracle’s offer for Acme is more than six times the target company’s sales over the past 12 months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

By comparison, Oracle agreed in December to buy cloud-computing company Eloqua Inc. for about $871 million.

In two previous large cloud-computing deals last year, Redwood City, Calif.-based Oracle bought HR tools maker Taleo Corp. in April and software maker RightNow Technologies Inc. in January.

Acme, based in Bedford, Mass., will help speed the transition to all-IP networks by enabling secure communications from any device, across any network, Oracle said. Acme has more than 1,925 customers in 109 countries.

“The addition of Acme Packet to Oracle’s leading communications portfolio will enable service providers and enterprises to deliver innovative solutions that will change the way we interact, conduct commerce, deliver healthcare, secure our homes, and much more,” Oracle President Marc Hurd said in a separate statement.

Information for this article was contributed by Lisa Rapaport of Bloomberg News.

Business, Pages 25 on 02/05/2013