Second Deal This Year Bolsters Oracle’s Acme Packet Purchase

As part of the plan to beef up Oracle and Acme Packet products and services (Acme being snapped up last month), Oracle is buying Tekelec, a provider of network-signaling, policy-control, and subscriber-data-management products, including Diameter and SS7. “Oracle expects to provide the most complete communications offering that will enable service providers to engage with customers, improve operations, control network resources and deploy innovative communications services,” Bhaskar Gorti, Oracle’s senior vice president/GM, said earlier today in a letter to customers and partners. Commented Dana Cooperson, principal analyst at Ovum, “This acquisition further extends Oracle’s move into the heart of telecom networks.” He also noted Tekelec’s core competences bring to Oracle services for which it had to partner with third parties in the past to provide. The two entities will continue to operate independently, and the transaction is expected to close sometime this summer. Both companies are keeping the financials under wraps.