Oracle Corp., which has spent $34 billion to buy 50 companies over the past few years, has aggressive plans to continue its acquisition strategy over the next five years, company President Charles Phillips said yesterday.
Speaking at a session for executives at OpenWorld, Oracle's annual user and partner conference in San Francisco, Phillips said that Oracle completed a new five-year plan last summer that calls for a continuation of a strategy that has seen Oracle acquire such companies as PeopleSoft, J.D. Edwards, Siebel Systems, and BEA Systems in recent years.
Phillips suggested that over the next five years, the level of acquisition activity could be similar to what Oracle has accomplished in the past 44 months.
"There is plenty of acquisition opportunity in the industry," Phillips said. "We have access to innovation around the world because of our balance sheet and acquisition strategy." In a sense, he said, Oracle "is the IPO market for the software industry."