Nokia and Oracle seals mapping deal.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesùs.

Nokia and Oracle seals mapping deal.

Struggling Finnish vendor Nokia has struck a deal that will give Oracle’s customers access to its growing vault of map data and location services.

The Wall Street Journal claims the partnership could be announced later today in San Francisco at the OracleWorld conference.

The move will come as a boost to Nokia, as it looks for ways to strengthen the business. The quality of its map services are held in high regard throughout the industry and it has recently signed mapping deals with Groupon and Amazon. In 2008 Nokia acquired the world’s largest digital mapping firm Navteq.  In stark contrast with Nokia's troubled phone business, sales at Nokia's location business grew last quarter, although it still generates only 4 percent of group revenue.

The high-profile deal also comes as major rival Apple struggles with the launch of its own mapping services on the new iOS 6 platform.

Meanwhile Oracle is the world's third-biggest software firm but also sells hardware to corporate clients and in 2009 bought Sun Microsystems, the manufacturer of server computers and developer of Java and Solaris software. Oracle will tout the deal as an easy way for customers to use Nokia's maps to integrate consistent and broad mapping capabilities into Oracle applications.

Why Oracle buying webOS is not so crazy?

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Maybe you will not agree if Oracle buy webOS, but ZDNet has made some analysis of why it is not so crazy:

•     Oracle is trying to sue Google into oblivion for Android. Oracle wants billions from Google and a trial has been pushed off until 2012. A purchase of WebOS would give Oracle more patents that could be used as ammo in that lawsuit.

•     The return on a WebOS investment could be delivered via a lawsuit. If Oracle’s lawsuit vs. Google doesn’t work out, WebOS could be leveraged elsewhere.

•     A WebOS purchase could be a thaw in relations with HP. The Oracle-HP relationship is strained to say the least. However, new CEO Meg Whitman may be able to improve relations. If Oracle took WebOS off HP’s hands it may be a sign of detente.

•     Oracle is now a hardware player. Some of that WebOS intellectual property could come in handy in some form.

Also ZDNet says; Oracle is probably a long shot to buy HP’s WebOS. However, crazier things in tech have happened.

Source: ZDNet

Related post: 

Unconfirmed: HP to sell webOS or keep it?

Oracle offering Art Technology $1 bln to buy.

Massachusetts-based Art Technology offerings include e-commerce software and related IT services for online retail, travel, media, insurance, and financial services companies. ATG's software tracks and analyzes online customer behavior and enables users to manage e-commerce Web sites. The company also provides add-on optimization services including "Click to Chat" and "Click to Call" Web page links that allow online customers to contact customer service agents.

ATG's eCommerce software platform is highly complementary to Oracle's CRM, ERP, Retail, and Supply Chain applications, as well as its portfolio of middleware and business intelligence technologies.

"Bringing together the complementary technologies and products from Oracle and ATG will enable the delivery of next-generation, unified cross-channel commerce and CRM," said Thomas Kurian, Executive Vice President Oracle Development.

"The addition of ATG, which brings market-leading products used by some of the largest and most well-known retailers and brands, furthers Oracle's strategy of delivering industry-specific enterprise applications," said Bob Weiler, Executive Vice President, Oracle Global Business Units.

The deal is expected to close by early 2011, subject to stockholder and regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions.

Oracle Corp (ORCL) will acquire Art Technology Group, Inc. (ARTG) for about $1 billion to boost its eCommerce portfolio.

For each share of Art Technology, Oracle will pay $6, representing a premium of 46 percent to the stock's closing price on Nov.1.

Related articles

• Oracle acquires Art Technology Group for $1 billion; eyes e-commerce (zdnet.com)
• Oracle Buys eCommerce Software Giant ATG For $1 Billion (techcrunchit.com)

Is Oracle Vying to Acquire HP?

                        

With HP's strong presence in the hardware and server market, Oracle can leverage it to gain access into network, storage and server domains.                     

Hewlett-Packard and Oracle announced a truce over Mark Hurd's appointment as co-President on Tuesday, with HP saying that it was now sure Hurd "will adhere to his obligations to protect HP's confidential information" as Oracle's president.

The lawsuit that was filed immediately after Hurd was appointed co-president in Oracle, to block Hurd's move citing compromise of trade secrets as primary reason, giving credence to the fact that HP feared disclosure of critical secrets.

However, with Oracle's ambition to become a one-stop shop for enterprise level software and hardware, Hurd's appointment could actually fuel speculation that Oracle CEO Larry Ellison could be eyeing HP itself.

"Larry Ellison is borderline bat-shit crazy on a good day," says veteran Silicon Valley analyst Rob Enderle, a principal analyst at the Enderle Group, in a piece last week by Sam Gustin -- a senior writer at DailyFinance, an AOL Finance & Money site.

He further added that "Ellison believes he can do anything, and he wants to go after IBM, if he can figure a way out to get HP, then I believe he would like to do that. Because he would really like to bring IBM out, and he needs a company of the stature of HP to do it."

Though the gargantuan merger of the two companies seems impossible in theory, the clubbing of the companies can surely challenge IBM's hegemony.

With Larry Ellison being a champion of the theory that the IT sector will see consolidation similar to the auto industry which would give rise to two or three big players like GM, Ford and Chrysler, the HP acquisition may be up his agenda.

Oracle has left industry watchers convinced about its plans to add hardware capabilities with its acquisition of Sun Microsystems. With HP's strong presence in the hardware and server market, Oracle can leverage it to gain access into network, storage and server domains.

Oracle has built a portfolio of products across database, server and storage systems, middleware, industry solutions and applications, and all through acquisitions. Oracle acquired close to 65 companies big and small since 2005 to create a stack of enterprise software across these domains.

The greatest glitch in such a merger is the complexity of integration of the two giants. And it could be addressed by Mark Hurd's presence.

In spite of the merger benefits, questions whether a $130 billion company like Oracle can vie for a $90 billion HP are in circulation. Thus Oracle can attempt to damage HP enough till its value reduces. In fact, with Mark Hurd's departure HP lost $15 billion in value as its share price dipped from $46.30 on Aug. 6 to $39.92, Techcrunch reported.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39305937/ns/business-motley_fool/