REDWOOD SHORES, Calif.—Software giant Oracle Corp. announced it’s spending about $220 million to buy Portal Software Inc., a firm that develops billing and revenue management solutions for the communications and media industries.
“The combination of Oracle and Portal delivers the first end-to-end packaged enterprise software suite for the communications industry,” said Charles Phillips, president of Oracle. “We supply technology and applications to over 90 percent of communications companies worldwide today, and billing is a logical and complementary addition for those customers.”
Oracle cited its long commitment to the communications industry and noted that its Siebel Telecom applications are used in many telecom call centers for customer care. The company said Portal offers a billing and revenue management solution with an object-oriented architecture built on Oracle’s platform that can bill and manage all communications services including wireline, wireless, broadband, cable, Voice over Internet Protocol, IP-TV, music and video. As communications, publishing, media, and entertainment services converge, Oracle says it will be able to support companies with an offering for billing, customer interaction, and management of digital services and content.
Under terms of the acquisition, Oracle said Portal’s management and employees would form a communications business unit within Oracle and will concentrate on billing and revenue management.
