Oracle readies another billion

Well, now, that’s more like it. Has anyone noticed how acquisition-hungry Oracle has been silent lately? No more. Oracle closed out the week raising a previously made off for most of India-based software firm i-flex Solutions Ltd.

Oracle has announced they’ll be putting up $1.3 billion; Oracle wants a big 90 percent of the company. Last year, Oracle acquired a 41 percent stake in i-flex from Orbitech Ltd. At week’s beginning, Oracle offered approximately $913 million for the same shares. Stated Oracle CEO Larry Ellison emphatically on Friday: “There will not be another open offer and Oracle will not undertake a delisting for at least the next five years unless i-flex shares are selling at a significantly lower price than they are today. This is the last opportunity for i-flex shareholders to tender their shares to Oracle." All right, then.

This offer will close on December 23. DSP Merrill Lynch is acting as a manager of the open offer.

The effect of the news on i-flex stock and the Indian stock market was tremendous. i-flex stock jumped 18 percent at the news of the raise in offer. On June 8, i-flex stock bottomed out, to trade at its 52-week low, but the stock has gained nearly 150 percent in six months. In November, i-flex stock jumped 33 percent and in the first week of December alone, 22.08 percent.

Back on October 11, i-flex attempted to count Oracle as a partner (and increase stock value, to be sure, which the firm did) when the two announced a plan to combine the business and IT architectural leadership of IBM in banks, banking-specific application solutions from Oracle with core banking and risk solutions from i-flex. The companies announced the launch of Flexcube, i-flex’s newest retail banking product, on the IBM System z mainframe platform.

i-flex Solutions provides IT product, custom solutions and consulting services to the financial services industry, with more than 660 customers in over 120 countries.