Oracle Corporation to buy RightNow for about $1.5 billion

Oracle Corporation plans to buy online customer service company RightNow Technologies Inc for about $1.5 billion, sparking speculation of bids for other so-called cloud technology companies that deliver software, data & computing power over the Internet.

Oracle's bid amounted to a 20 percent premium over RightNow's closing price on Friday. RightNow's shares rose 19 percent in early trading.

Oracle is pushing into the cloud technology market, including sales force automation, human resources & databases.

Oracle said on Monday it would pay $43 for each share of RightNow. The company's shares, which closed at $35.96 on Friday, rose to $42.81 on Nasdaq.

RightNow reported third-quarter profit ahead of Wall Street estimates and canceled its meeting call scheduled for later in the day. The company also canceled its October 25 analyst day conference.

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