Oracle to buy Hyperion for $3.3 billion

01 March 2007

Investors in Santa Clara, California-based Hyperion will receive $52 per share, which is 21 per cent more than Hyperion's latest closing price of $42.84.

Hyperion's acquisition will give Oracle control of Hyperion technology that help companies track their business performance - tools that are widely used by many of SAP's customers - Redwood City, California-based Oracle said in a statement.

The acquisition is in line with the aggressive expansion that Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison launched a push to upgrade his company's business applications software, the computer coding that automates a wide range of administrative tasks.

Oracle is dominant in database software, but growth in that market has been tapering off in recent years - a factor that convinced Ellison that Oracle needed to seize a bigger piece of the business applications market.

Hyperion has about 2,700 employees against Oracle's over 56,000 workers.

Germany-based SAP, Oracle's larger rival in the market for business-management software, has long been the leader in the field, but Oracle has been narrowing the gap by snapping up an array of other software makers, most notably PeopleSoft Inc. and Siebel Systems Inc.