Oracle buys data quality specialist Carleton

Oracle Corp., looking to strengthen its data movement and warehousing portfolio, said Tuesday it would acquire financially troubled Carleton Corp. for $8.7 million.

Carleton's technology for customer-oriented data quality will become part of Oracle's oft-delayed Warehouse Builder, a data movement and warehouse design product expected to ship next year, Oracle officials said.

The acquisition is expected to close in February, pending regulatory and shareholder approval. Carleton, in Minnetonka, Minn., lost $2.3 million on revenues of $1.1 million in the quarter ended June 28.

Carleton sells a data cleansing, transformation and integration suite called PureView that it aims at customer relationship management and other applications in which consistent customer data -- names, addresses and so forth -- is important.

"This acquisition enhances our strategy and delivery of e-business solutions that yield an accurate, unified view of customers," Michael Howard, vice president of Oracle's data warehouse program office, said in a statement.

Oracle, in Redwood Shores, Calif., is at www.oracle.com. Carleton is at www.carleton.com.