Oracle buys Endeca to ramp up data reach

Oracle has acquired Endeca, an unstructured data software and business intelligence company, for an undisclosed sum.

As a result of the deal, announced on Tuesday, Oracle plans to take Endeca's technology and combine it with its ATG Commerce product. Oracle's move gives it Endeca's MDEX engine, which makes sense of unstructured data, as well as Endeca InFront, an e-commerce platform, and Endeca Latitude, which provides analytics.

"The combination of Oracle and Endeca is expected to create a comprehensive technology platform to process, store, manage, search and analyse structured and unstructured information together," Oracle said in a statement.

The purchase is a sign that Oracle is serious about content management and unstructured data, and pitches it against HP, which bought Autonomy with the same market in mind. Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Endeca was in line to go public and raised $65m (£41m) from various venture firms as well as from Oracle rival SAP. Endeca last disclosed its sales in 2007, when it delivered $108m in revenue.

According to Oracle, the deal will close at the end of 2011.

For more on this ZDNet UK-selected story, see Oracle buys Endeca, makes an unstructured data statement on ZDNet.com.