Oracle has agreed to acquire business intelligence software vendor Hyperion Solutions for $3.3 billion in cash, it said Thursday.

Oracle said it will combine Hyperion's software with its own business intelligence (BI) and analytics tools to offer customers a broad range of performance management capabilities, including planning, budgeting and operational analytics.

The deal, the latest big purchase by Oracle following its acquisitions of applications vendors PeopleSoft, Siebel Systems and others, will expand Oracle's portfolio of database, applications and middleware with a set of business intelligence products, which are used by companies to collect and analyze information about their businesses.

It continues Oracle's strategy of growing its revenue and customer base through major acquisitions. But it also present the challenge of integrating the products and employees of yet another large company into Oracle, which has announced at least 28 acquisitions since the start of 2005.

The companies hope to close the acquisition by April, subject to customary closing conditions. Oracle has agreed to pay $52 per share for Hyperion, or about $3.3 billion, a premium of 21% over Hyperion's closing share price Wednesday.

Oracle had a handful of market-leading BI vendors to choose from, which also include Cognos and Business Objects. Hyperion was the best fit for Oracle both in terms of products and culturally, said David Mitchell, head of global software research with the U.K. analyst company Ovum.

Oracle has been trying to build out its own BI business, offering tools for integrating data among a number of applications and technologies. But its offerings were focused primarily towards customers of its own software, Mitchell said.

"Adding Hyperion to the family makes it a best-of-breed player, rather than just focusing on the traditional Oracle customer base," he said.

The acquisition could start a "domino effect" in which the other large BI vendors are also acquired, according to Mitchell

Part of Oracle's motivation for the deal appears to be to poach customers from its chief applications rival SAP: Many SAP customers use Hyperion software, and the acquisition will bring them closer to Oracle, Oracle President Charles Phillips said in a statement.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.