Oracle vs. Salesforce: Social Acquisition Face-off
Oracle and Salesforce.com have established a pattern of dueling acquisitions of social business companies. Here's how that battle is shaping up.
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Oracle's recent purchase of Involver was just the latest in a string of acquisitions the database company has made in the last couple of years. It was also one of many purchases that would bolster Oracle's social standing in the enterprise. Oracle's increasingly close rival, Salesforce, has been making its fair share of social-focused acquisitions. Indeed, examining the two companies' acquisitions during the last couple of years reveals what seems to be a race to acquire technology that will extend and--in many cases--fill gaps in Salesforce's and Oracle's social business offerings.
Just this week Oracle announced another planned acquisition of a social company, SelectMinds, a cloud-based provider of social talent sourcing and corporate alumni management applications.
Oracle and Salesforce.com compete directly in the area of customer relationship management, with the emphasis shifting to online and social sales and customer service. Both companies have recently targeted companies that will bolster their capabilities in these areas.
This pattern of dueling acquisitions intensified, according to The BrainYard Editor David F. Carr, when Salesforce.com stepped up its focus on social business with the introduction of Chatter and the acquisition of Radian6. Oracle countered with the acquisition of RightNow, in part for its ability to connect and service customers through social media interaction.
The rush to acquire social networking technology by vendors of enterprise-focused products demonstrates the importance of social and the ways in which it is increasingly being woven into organizations' business processes.
In a story on Oracle's recent acquisition of social media marketing company Vitrue, AdExchanger asked "senior sources" for their take on the recent buying spree by Oracle, Salesforce.com, and others. Tim Fogarty, senior social media strategies at M80, was quoted in the article as saying: "The acquisition of Vitrue by Oracle ... marks yet another big move involving a social media technology company. As in many other sectors of the tech space, the largest players are seeking to offer all-inclusive toolsets to their customers, vertically integrating services and consolidating revenue streams."
Salesforce has stated clearly and relatively early that its thinking that social networking technologies and models will--and should--be a key driver for enterprise applications moving forward. Oracle was later to the table and has been more cautious in its social forays, although the company seems to be making up for what is arguably lost time when it comes to social.
In this slideshow, The BrainYard lists some of the key social business-focused buys Oracle and Salesforce have made in the last couple of years. We look at what the acquisitions bring each company and, ultimately, what all of this means for their customers.
Following are some of the key social networking-focused acquisitions Salesforce.com has made since 2010.
Further Reading
10 Big Deals Show Future of Social Apps
Oracle Buying Spree Continues with Involver
How 6 Tech Execs Set Social Example
Chatter Comes to Eloqua, Bridging Marketing and Sales
Buddy Media on Social Software Pitfalls
Oracle's Recent Software Buys Fuel Customer Experience Strategy
Salesforce's acquisition of Activa Live, makers of Activa Live Chat, provides the CRM vendor and its customers with an on-demand live chat system, not to mention the ability to monitor, identify and engage with online visitors in real-time.
Further Reading
10 Big Deals Show Future of Social Apps
Oracle Buying Spree Continues with Involver
How 6 Tech Execs Set Social Example
Chatter Comes to Eloqua, Bridging Marketing and Sales
Buddy Media on Social Software Pitfalls
Oracle's Recent Software Buys Fuel Customer Experience Strategy
Contact management firm Etacts provided technology that enables users to integrate email inboxes and build out contacts. Users can rank contacts by a number of factors, including the number of times a user has communicated with them.
Further Reading
10 Big Deals Show Future of Social Apps
Oracle Buying Spree Continues with Involver
How 6 Tech Execs Set Social Example
Chatter Comes to Eloqua, Bridging Marketing and Sales
Buddy Media on Social Software Pitfalls
Oracle's Recent Software Buys Fuel Customer Experience Strategy
In late-December 2010, Salesforce announced that it was acquiring Heroku, a company that provides a Ruby application platform-as-a-service, for about $212 million in cash. The acquisition gave Salesforce a large developer community, as well as a platform that powers thousands of social and mobile cloud applications.
Further Reading
10 Big Deals Show Future of Social Apps
Oracle Buying Spree Continues with Involver
How 6 Tech Execs Set Social Example
Chatter Comes to Eloqua, Bridging Marketing and Sales
Buddy Media on Social Software Pitfalls
Oracle's Recent Software Buys Fuel Customer Experience Strategy
In early 2011, Salesforce announced that it was acquiring DimDim, a Web conferencing service, for about $30 million. DimDim gave Salesforce real-time collaboration capabilities, as well as the ability to share documents, record sessions, perform whiteboard tasks, and use video, voice and phone conferencing.
Further Reading
10 Big Deals Show Future of Social Apps
Oracle Buying Spree Continues with Involver
How 6 Tech Execs Set Social Example
Chatter Comes to Eloqua, Bridging Marketing and Sales
Buddy Media on Social Software Pitfalls
Oracle's Recent Software Buys Fuel Customer Experience Strategy
Radian6 bolstered Salesforce in a very important area: social media monitoring and analysis. Radian technology monitors conversations across social media platforms, blogs, and forums. "With Radian6, Salesforce.com is gaining the technology and market leader in social media monitoring," said Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff at the time.
Further Reading
10 Big Deals Show Future of Social Apps
Oracle Buying Spree Continues with Involver
How 6 Tech Execs Set Social Example
Chatter Comes to Eloqua, Bridging Marketing and Sales
Buddy Media on Social Software Pitfalls
Oracle's Recent Software Buys Fuel Customer Experience Strategy
A year after its acquisition of customer service vendor Activa Live, Salesforce bought social customer service startup Assistly for about $80 million. Assistly provided technology that helps companies gather customer conversations and organize them into prioritized, actionable lists.
The service based on Assistly is now marketed as Desk.com.
Further Reading
10 Big Deals Show Future of Social Apps
Oracle Buying Spree Continues with Involver
How 6 Tech Execs Set Social Example
Chatter Comes to Eloqua, Bridging Marketing and Sales
Buddy Media on Social Software Pitfalls
Oracle's Recent Software Buys Fuel Customer Experience Strategy
Salesforce's acquisition of Model Metrics bolstered its mobile and social cloud consulting services. Of the deal, Salesforce COO George Hu said, "The addition of Model Metrics' mobile and social expertise will accelerate Salesforce.com's ability to lead the shift to the social enterprise and empower partners to develop their social enterprise practice."
Further Reading
10 Big Deals Show Future of Social Apps
Oracle Buying Spree Continues with Involver
How 6 Tech Execs Set Social Example
Chatter Comes to Eloqua, Bridging Marketing and Sales
Buddy Media on Social Software Pitfalls
Oracle's Recent Software Buys Fuel Customer Experience Strategy
With the acquisition of Rypple, Salesforce gained a social management platform that helps managers and employees improve performance. Rypple takes a social and collaborative approach, allowing managers to proactively track projects and provide ongoing feedback to employees.
Further Reading
10 Big Deals Show Future of Social Apps
Oracle Buying Spree Continues with Involver
How 6 Tech Execs Set Social Example
Chatter Comes to Eloqua, Bridging Marketing and Sales
Buddy Media on Social Software Pitfalls
Oracle's Recent Software Buys Fuel Customer Experience Strategy
ManyMoons adds capabilities to social productivity apps such as Gmail and Google Apps, enabling small teams to work together more effectively. The ManyMoons team went on to form the core Salesforce's product team for Do.com, which offers tools for team collaboration and personal productivity.
Further Reading
10 Big Deals Show Future of Social Apps
Oracle Buying Spree Continues with Involver
How 6 Tech Execs Set Social Example
Chatter Comes to Eloqua, Bridging Marketing and Sales
Buddy Media on Social Software Pitfalls
Oracle's Recent Software Buys Fuel Customer Experience Strategy
In May 2012 Salesforce.com acquired Stypi, which makes a real-time collaborative text editor. In two months' time, Salesforce would show interest in complementary collaborative browsing technology.
Further Reading
10 Big Deals Show Future of Social Apps
Oracle Buying Spree Continues with Involver
How 6 Tech Execs Set Social Example
Chatter Comes to Eloqua, Bridging Marketing and Sales
Buddy Media on Social Software Pitfalls
Oracle's Recent Software Buys Fuel Customer Experience Strategy
Salesforce.com's acquisition of Buddy Media and, almost simultaneously, Oracle's acquisition of Vitrue showed the importance companies of all types are putting on social media--as well as the challenges they face in effectively implementing and managing a social media strategy on their own. Buddy Media helps brands manage their presence on social networking platforms including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+.
Further Reading
10 Big Deals Show Future of Social Apps
Oracle Buying Spree Continues with Involver
How 6 Tech Execs Set Social Example
Chatter Comes to Eloqua, Bridging Marketing and Sales
Buddy Media on Social Software Pitfalls
Oracle's Recent Software Buys Fuel Customer Experience Strategy
One of Salesforce.com's most recent "gets" is GoInstant, a company that makes technology that enables people to browse the Web together without additional software plugins. This type of technology will be especially useful for help desk and customer support application, but can also be used for day-to-day collaboration with colleagues.
Further Reading
10 Big Deals Show Future of Social Apps
Oracle Buying Spree Continues with Involver
How 6 Tech Execs Set Social Example
Chatter Comes to Eloqua, Bridging Marketing and Sales
Buddy Media on Social Software Pitfalls
Oracle's Recent Software Buys Fuel Customer Experience Strategy
Following are some of the key social networking-focused acquisitions Oracle has made since 2010.
Further Reading
10 Big Deals Show Future of Social Apps
Oracle Buying Spree Continues with Involver
How 6 Tech Execs Set Social Example
Chatter Comes to Eloqua, Bridging Marketing and Sales
Buddy Media on Social Software Pitfalls
Oracle's Recent Software Buys Fuel Customer Experience Strategy
Fatwire's Web content and experience management software bolsters customers' ability to deliver relevant customer content and build and improve community engagement on mobile and social channels.
Further Reading
10 Big Deals Show Future of Social Apps
Oracle Buying Spree Continues with Involver
How 6 Tech Execs Set Social Example
Chatter Comes to Eloqua, Bridging Marketing and Sales
Buddy Media on Social Software Pitfalls
Oracle's Recent Software Buys Fuel Customer Experience Strategy
In July 2011 Oracle announced its intention to acquire InQuira to boost its CRM and knowledge management capabilities. InQuira's natural language processing technology enables companies to determine the "true intent" of a customer's question or comment. This is important in many help desk and customer service applications, but it may also help companies as they move more of their customer service to social and do more proactive listening and engagement.
Further Reading
10 Big Deals Show Future of Social Apps
Oracle Buying Spree Continues with Involver
How 6 Tech Execs Set Social Example
Chatter Comes to Eloqua, Bridging Marketing and Sales
Buddy Media on Social Software Pitfalls
Oracle's Recent Software Buys Fuel Customer Experience Strategy
This was a big one: $1.5 billion big. RightNow provides SaaS-based call center, SFA and CRM capabilities, boosting Oracle's overall position in the enterprise against Salesforce.
Further Reading
10 Big Deals Show Future of Social Apps
Oracle Buying Spree Continues with Involver
How 6 Tech Execs Set Social Example
Chatter Comes to Eloqua, Bridging Marketing and Sales
Buddy Media on Social Software Pitfalls
Oracle's Recent Software Buys Fuel Customer Experience Strategy
In early 2012, Oracle bought Taleo for $1.9 million. Taleo is a human services management company that overlaps somewhat with Salesforce's Rypple (although a closer comparison would be with SuccessFactors, which got bought by SAP). Taleo gives Oracle tools that help companies manage human resources, recruit employees and set compensation.
Further Reading
10 Big Deals Show Future of Social Apps
Oracle Buying Spree Continues with Involver
How 6 Tech Execs Set Social Example
Chatter Comes to Eloqua, Bridging Marketing and Sales
Buddy Media on Social Software Pitfalls
Oracle's Recent Software Buys Fuel Customer Experience Strategy
Oracle purchased Vitrue, a Buddy Media competitor whose technology helps customers manage their social marketing campaigns and activities. Reportedly price: $300 million.
Further Reading
10 Big Deals Show Future of Social Apps
Oracle Buying Spree Continues with Involver
How 6 Tech Execs Set Social Example
Chatter Comes to Eloqua, Bridging Marketing and Sales
Buddy Media on Social Software Pitfalls
Oracle's Recent Software Buys Fuel Customer Experience Strategy
In June, Oracle announced that it was acquiring Collective Intellect, whose platform includes a semantic analytics engine that analyzes social conversations for actionable insight. The capabilities of Collective Insight are similar to those of Radian6, which Salesforce.com acquired in March 2011.
Further Reading
10 Big Deals Show Future of Social Apps
Oracle Buying Spree Continues with Involver
How 6 Tech Execs Set Social Example
Chatter Comes to Eloqua, Bridging Marketing and Sales
Buddy Media on Social Software Pitfalls
Oracle's Recent Software Buys Fuel Customer Experience Strategy
Just this month, Oracle announced that it is buying Involver, which makes software tools that let companies interact with customers on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
Further Reading
10 Big Deals Show Future of Social Apps
Oracle Buying Spree Continues with Involver
How 6 Tech Execs Set Social Example
Chatter Comes to Eloqua, Bridging Marketing and Sales
Buddy Media on Social Software Pitfalls
Oracle's Recent Software Buys Fuel Customer Experience Strategy
Just this month, Oracle announced that it is buying Involver, which makes software tools that let companies interact with customers on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
Further Reading
10 Big Deals Show Future of Social Apps
Oracle Buying Spree Continues with Involver
How 6 Tech Execs Set Social Example
Chatter Comes to Eloqua, Bridging Marketing and Sales
Buddy Media on Social Software Pitfalls
Oracle's Recent Software Buys Fuel Customer Experience Strategy
Oracle's recent purchase of Involver was just the latest in a string of acquisitions the database company has made in the last couple of years. It was also one of many purchases that would bolster Oracle's social standing in the enterprise. Oracle's increasingly close rival, Salesforce, has been making its fair share of social-focused acquisitions. Indeed, examining the two companies' acquisitions during the last couple of years reveals what seems to be a race to acquire technology that will extend and--in many cases--fill gaps in Salesforce's and Oracle's social business offerings.
Just this week Oracle announced another planned acquisition of a social company, SelectMinds, a cloud-based provider of social talent sourcing and corporate alumni management applications.
Oracle and Salesforce.com compete directly in the area of customer relationship management, with the emphasis shifting to online and social sales and customer service. Both companies have recently targeted companies that will bolster their capabilities in these areas.
This pattern of dueling acquisitions intensified, according to The BrainYard Editor David F. Carr, when Salesforce.com stepped up its focus on social business with the introduction of Chatter and the acquisition of Radian6. Oracle countered with the acquisition of RightNow, in part for its ability to connect and service customers through social media interaction.
The rush to acquire social networking technology by vendors of enterprise-focused products demonstrates the importance of social and the ways in which it is increasingly being woven into organizations' business processes.
In a story on Oracle's recent acquisition of social media marketing company Vitrue, AdExchanger asked "senior sources" for their take on the recent buying spree by Oracle, Salesforce.com, and others. Tim Fogarty, senior social media strategies at M80, was quoted in the article as saying: "The acquisition of Vitrue by Oracle ... marks yet another big move involving a social media technology company. As in many other sectors of the tech space, the largest players are seeking to offer all-inclusive toolsets to their customers, vertically integrating services and consolidating revenue streams."
Salesforce has stated clearly and relatively early that its thinking that social networking technologies and models will--and should--be a key driver for enterprise applications moving forward. Oracle was later to the table and has been more cautious in its social forays, although the company seems to be making up for what is arguably lost time when it comes to social.
In this slideshow, The BrainYard lists some of the key social business-focused buys Oracle and Salesforce have made in the last couple of years. We look at what the acquisitions bring each company and, ultimately, what all of this means for their customers.
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