Bring Me All the Application Software-Makers … and a Bucket

Will Oracle’s latest multimillion-dollar acquisition diminish CEO Larry Ellison’s appetite for business-software makers? Hard to say, now that the company has ticked off most of the companies on its April 2003 list of acquisition targets and begun ordering off the regular menu. During the past three years, Oracle has spent more than $20 billion on some 30 acquisitions, gorging itself on business-applications companies like Monty Python’s insatiable Mr. Creosote. And now it’s purchased yet another.

Oracle said yesterday it would acquire Agile Software for about $495 million. The deal gives the software giant good exposure in the product life-cycle management business and a list of more than 10,000 customers, many of whom are clients of its Teutonic rival, SAP. Another savvy move by Oracle, whose investment strategy, though risky, is clearly paying big dividends. The question is how many acquisitions are enough?

Would Monsieur Ellison care for a wafer thin mint?