November 3, 2010 – Oracle has acquired Art Technology Group, smoothing the path into e-commerce. Art Technology is one of the leading providers of e-commerce software and this deal is expected to close by early 2011.

The Wall Street Journal delivered us this news in their article, “Oracle To Buy Software Maker Art Tech For $1B.” There seems to be an increase in acquisition activity in the technology sector as tech companies look for smart uses for their money. Oracle joins other tech giants including Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ), Intel Corp. (INTC) and International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) in purchasing smaller tech firms this year.

Spurring a little more excitement, Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison recently said he would be interested in buying intellectual property of all kinds, including semiconductor and software companies.

There seems to be a lot of organizational news lately; new CEOs, mergers, etc. It will be interesting to see how and if these changes will result in technology advancements in the months to come.

Melody K. Smith

Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in thesaurus, ontology, and taxonomy creation and metadata application.