Oracle beats SAP to Retek
Published: 22 Mar 2005 09:00 GMT
Oracle announced late Monday that it has signed a definitive deal to acquire Retek, saying it had defeated rival SAP in its bidding war for the Minneapolis-based retail software maker.
In a press release, Oracle said it will acquire Retek at a price of $11.25 (£5.93) for each outstanding Retek share and said that SAP had dropped out of the bidding.
"Oracle has the largest applications business in North America, and we intend to expand that leadership position," Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said in a statement. "Combining Oracle with Retek is an important step in that direction, and it strengthens our position in the retail applications market globally."
The final price matches the offer made by Oracle last Thursday, the same day that SAP had upped its bid to $11 a share. The total value of the deal comes to about $650m.
SAP had announced on 28 February that it had reached a deal to buy Retek in late February for $8.50 a share. Oracle responded on 8 March with a $9 a share bid.
Although Oracle is a longtime Retek partner and the two had held takeover talks last year, Retek's board had backed both SAP's original offer and its revised bid before announcing late Monday that it had reached a deal with Oracle.
Retek CEO Marty Leestma said Oracle's offer represented "a good deal for Retek stockholders" and said that all of the directors who attended a board meeting had approved the pact. Retek did not identify which director or directors did not attend the meeting. "We will work with Oracle over the next several weeks to ensure that the integration is not disruptive for our clients and employees," Leestma said in a statement.
Oracle noted that nearly four in five Retek customers run that company's applications on top of Oracle's database.
Retek has about 525 workers and had sales last year of $174.2m.
The Retek purchase comes not long after Oracle completed a bruising battle to acquire PeopleSoft. That $10bn deal closed in January.
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