Oracle buys Taleo

Image via CrunchBase

Oracle's Feb. 9 acquisition of enterprise talent management provider Taleo Corp. for $1.9 billion is a clear indicator of the all-purpose IT giant's commitment to becoming a major-league player in the enterprise cloud services business.

For $46 per share, Oracle is now the proud owner of the world's second-busiest software as a service (SaaS) solution provider. Only Salesforce.com records and stores more daily transactions than Taleo, which has a bit more than 5,000 customers and focuses on small and midsized businesses and large enterprises.

Salesforce recently topped the 100,000-customer level—with about 30 million users—and has done as many as 120 million transactions in a day.

Dublin, Calif.-based Taleo is fast becoming the human resources department's best friend. Its cloud serves more than 20 million users and processes as many as 68 million transactions a day. The company's customer base is growing by 37 percent annually for packaged services that range from performance management and learning management to compensation and succession planning.

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• Oracle Buying Taleo for $1.9 Billion in Direct Hit at SAP (pcworld.com)