Oracle wants to increase its offerings in the cloud RightNow. The software giant has agreed to pay $1.5 billion for RightNow Technologies (NASDAQ RNOW). That’s $43 a share, almost 20% more than RightNow’s closing price on Friday.
RightNow provides cloud-based customer service, supporting more than 2 billion global cloud transactions each day. Its RightNow CX software suite helps clients serve customers via the Internet, with a specialization on social networks, and via call centers. RightNow competes with SalesForce.com, the leader in customer relationship management (CRM).
RightNow released its third quarter results today, saying recurring revenue rose 24% to $47.9 million, and non-GAAP net income rose to $6.6 million, up from $5.1 million in the third quarter of 2010. For the nine months ended in September, recurring revenue was $135.2 million, and non-GAAP net income was $15.7 million. Trailing twelve months EPS are $0.79 a share, giving RightNow a current multiple of almost 55 times earnings.
Oracle has spent $40 billion on acquisitions since it bought human resources software maker PeopleSoft in 2005. Last year the company introduced the Oracle Public Cloud and purchased Sun Microsystems for $7.4 billion. Earlier this year, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said his company would scale back its buying spree because prices were high, but apparently the price looked right for RightNow
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison
