Oracle makes big SaaS buy with Phase Forward

Oracle has agreed to purchase web applications vendor Phase Forward in a cash deal which will reach roughly US$685m in total.

The company said that it would be shelling out US$17 per share for Phase Forward, a Massachusetts-based firm which specialises in software as a service (SaaS) platforms for health care providers.

Oracle said that when the deal is finalised, Phase Forward will become part of its Health Sciences enterprise service offering. The company hopes to wrap up the acquisition sometime near the middle of this year.

"The life sciences and healthcare industries are converging as they seek to control costs while accelerating patient-centered innovation," said Neil de Crescenzo, Oracle senior vice president and general manager for the Health Sciences branch.

"Phase Forward brings outstanding products and employees with significant expertise to Oracle that will help enable the delivery of personalised medicine and value-based healthcare."

The US$685m deal is one of the larger acquisitions Oracle has made since its 2009 merger with Sun Microsystems. In that deal, Oracle paid US$7.4bn to land the ailing IT giant.