Oracle is the world's largest enterprise software company. It has made its name in the software industry as the pioneer of relational database software, which lets businesses store and manage large amounts of data. The company's operations are separated into two divisions: software and services. Since 2005, Oracle's software licenses and software support have consistently brought in about 80% of their total revenue.^[1] The net revenue grew 24.6% to $22.43 billion for FY08 from $17.99 billion in the fiscal year for 2007. This has been attributed towards more sales along with revenues from the newly acquired companies.^[2]

Over the last three years Oracle has been on an acquisitions frenzy, spending $9.4 billion in FY08 alone to purchase smaller companies that specialize in other segments of the industry (i.e. not database software).^[3] These acquisitions have increased the number of customers that rely on Oracle for product support. By increasing its customer base Oracle has been able to reduce its software license prices to compete with other software giants, keeping their support fees level and increasing the number of customers requiring their support. As of June 2nd 2009, Oracle is in the process of buying Sun Microsystems for $7.4 billion dollars. This acquisition is currently waiting for stockholder approval, and will enable Oracle to become a middleware leader. ^[4]

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