Thor, OctetString just the latest targets in Oracle’s buying binge

As I told you a few weeks ago, Oracle continued its acquisition binge by buying up OctetString, the virtual directory vendor, just before Thanksgiving. What I didn’t tell you, because my hands were tied and my lips sealed, was that Larry Ellison was also buying up provisioning vendor Thor Technologies.

Oracle is serious about being the dominant player in the identity business.

Larry Ellison is also throwing around some serious money as he acquires other businesses. Just this year, Oracle has acquired (quotes are from Oracle press releases):

PeopleSoft, January – “The combination of Oracle and PeopleSoft brings together the best and brightest talent in the enterprise software industry.”

Oblix, March – “The strength of Oblix’s leading identity management solutions combined with Oracle’s worldwide software and services business will give customers an unprecedented ability to build identity into their software infrastructure and applications.”

Retek, April – “The combination of Oracle and Retek will provide a comprehensive retail solution that includes back-office functionality for finance and human resources and extends to planning, merchandising, supply chain, and retail channels.”

TripleHop, June – “Oracle’s acquisition of certain assets of TripleHop Technologies, Inc., a provider of context-sensitive enterprise search products and technology, will extend Oracle’s development of comprehensive enterprise search.”

TimesTen, June – “The combination of Oracle and TimesTen will provide the products, expertise and resources to satisfy the growing demands of real-time industries and the evolution of the Real-Time Enterprise.”

ProfitLogic, July – “The combination of Oracle, ProfitLogic, and Retek will create the retail industry’s most comprehensive software solution, helping create tightly integrated, customer-insight-driven retail enterprises.”

Context Media, July – “Oracle’s acquisition of certain assets of Context Media, a leading provider of enterprise content integration (ECI) software, will extend Oracle Fusion Middleware and complement the enterprise content management (ECM) capabilities in Oracle Collaboration Suite.”

i-flex, August – “Oracle’s commitment to the business-critical functions of the banking industry is the foundation of the Oracle/i-flex agreement. By aligning the talents of both organizations, we will be better able to address the evolving needs of the banking industry.”

Siebel, September – “Siebel CRM, Oracle ERP, Oracle Fusion Middleware, and Oracle 10g Database will combine to form a complete, world-class set of customer-centric, information age applications.”

G-Log, September – “With the acquisition of G-Log, Oracle plans to offer customers the first complete, information-driven Logistics Hub solution for global supply chain and logistics management.”

Innobase, October – “With the acquisition of Innobase, a developer of discrete transactional open source database technology, InnoDB, Oracle plans to increase support for open source software.”

Thor Technologies, November – “The combination of Oracle and Thor brings the industry’s leading enterprise-wide user provisioning solution into a suite of best-in-class identity and access management offerings.”

OctetString, November – “The combination of Oracle and OctetString brings the industry’s leading virtual directory solution into a suite of best-in-class identity and access management offerings.”

Oracle is going after not only identity, but also retail, supply-chain, content-management, banking, search/data-mining tools and open source software.

There was a time when people thought Larry Ellison would set out to best Bill Gates, that he was driven to supplant the World’s Richest Man as a software vendor. This year’s acquisitions show that the target has changed. Oracle simply wants to be the Enterprise Software company, and it is well on its way.

Next issue, I’ll look at the impact of these acquisitions on the identity sector.