Oracle keen on buyouts

The $10 billion Oracle Corporation is on the prowl for acquisitions in India and China.

Mirroring Oracle chief Larry Ellison's comments that the company keen on acquisitions, Charles E Phillips, president of Oracle Corporation, on Thursday said in Mumbai: "There are a lot of interesting companies in India and China, which can enhance our product portfolio." However, he declined to comment on potential companies that could be acquired in these two countries.

Elaborating on Oracle Corporation's future plans, Phillips said: "We are bullish on this region and the company will also invest in the country in a bid to accelerate its growth, especially in applications server space and support operations and will also expand more partners."

Oracle India is on a hiring spree, adding around 250 people every month. "We have been hiring on an average 250 people every month for a while now. It has hit a plateau now. We have high expectations on revenues with 5 to 15 per cent growth in licensing revenues itself," Phillips said.

Phillips, who is on his first visit to the country, said currently the global software major had around 6,000 people on its rolls in India and the addition would help improve the penetration. Information architecture and grid computing would be the main thrust areas for the company and it was scouting for acquisitions in India to enhance its product portfolio, he said.

Global companies are facing competition and compliance norms in different parts of the world and need to manage their corporate performance by linking business strategy to operational key performance indicators. In order to do that, they need access to good quality data in real time, Phillips said.

"Companies are only as good as the information they have. Oracle thinks companies around the world are spending too much on retrieving value from information," Phillips said. Oracle was committed to helping business to get accurate information in real time using an integrated, consolidated and standardised information architecture, he added.

Oracle Corporation had recently announced an initiative to promote an Asia-centric Linux operating environment""or "Asianux"""that would offer low-cost and reliable software support systems.