Oracle Nears $5 Billion Deal for Micros Systems: Report

Oracle Corp is likely to buy Micros Systems in a $5 billion deal, expected to be announced as early as Monday morning, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The takeover would value Micros at more than $67 a share, the newspaper said.

Micros Systems makes point-of-sale hardware and software for restaurants and hotels. Oracle has been rolling out its own cloud-based products and acquiring smaller cloud companies such as marketing software maker Responsys Inc.

The deal, if confirmed, would be Oracle's largest acquisition since it bought Sun Microsystems for $5.6 billion in 2009.

Bloomberg reported last week that the companies were in exclusive talks.

Oracle and Micros Systems could not be immediately reached for comment outside regular U.S. business hours.

Last week, Oracle posted fiscal fourth-quarter results that disappointed investors looking for more progress against rivals selling web-based services, sending its shares lower.

Reflecting expectations of a pickup in its software business and progress in cloud computing, shares of Oracle had gained 10 percent over the past three months, double the S&P 500's increase.

But Thursday's results cast doubt onto Oracle's execution in an industry facing increasingly tight competition.

"It's a bit of a jaw-dropper, in terms of Oracle missing results across the board in its historically strong fiscal year-end quarter," said FBR analyst Dan Ives. "It's like Spain getting knocked out of the World Cup in its first week."

Smaller, aggressive companies like Salesforce.com Inc and Workday Inc have been offering competitive software and Internet-based products at prices that often undercut Oracle.

Oracle's meager quarterly results underscore soft spending across the enterprise technology industry. Spending could become even more restrained as companies around the world move away from operating their own IT departments in favor of cloud services that cost less, said Summit Research analyst Richard Williams.

Edited by NDTV staff from original story by Reuters