Cisco, Oracle Go Shopping, Announce Acquisitions

It's already been a busy year for deals, and Monday saw a flurry of deal announcements in the tech sector. The action was headed by two enterprise IT titans and frequent acquirers - Cisco and Oracle.

Cisco to acquire SolveDirect

Cisco (CSCO) announced its intent to acquire SolveDirect, a privately held company headquartered in Vienna, Austria that provides cloud-delivered services management integration software and services. SolveDirect’s cloud-based solutions offer enterprises and service providers a flexible way to integrate with service partners, and automate sharing of processes, data, and workflows in real-time by eliminating manual practices and bottlenecks. The company specializes in ITSM (Information Technology Service Management) integration solutions. Gartner listed SolveDirect in its 2012 Cool Vendors in Cloud Services Brokerage Enablers. SolveDirect’s capabilities will enable Cisco to extend our portfolio of smart and connected IT services to our global ecosystem of customers, partners and resellers.

Oracle buys Tekelec

Oracle (ORCL) announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Tekelec, a provider of network signaling, policy control, and subscriber data management solutions for communications networks. Tekelec solutions are used by over 300 service providers in 100+ countries. Its network signaling  (Diameter and SS7), policy control and subscriber data management solutions complement Oracle Communications' mission-critical operational support systems, service delivery platforms, and business support systems. By combining Tekelec with leading capabilities from Oracle Communications and Acme Packet*, Oracle expects to provide the most complete communications offering that will enable service providers to engage with customers, improve operations, control network resources and deploy innovative communications services.

“As connected devices and applications become ubiquitous, intelligent network and service control technologies are required to enable service providers to efficiently deploy all-IP networks, and deliver and monetize innovative communication services,” said Bhaskar Gorti, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Communications. “The combination of Oracle and Tekelec will provide service providers with the most complete solution to manage their businesses across customer engagement, business and network operations, service delivery and end user applications.”

Meanwhile,  Yahoo and Apple also got out the checkbook.  Yahoo looks to enhance its mobile experience with a $30 million purchase of summarization app Summly, and Apple quietly paid around $20 million for indoor location company WifiSLAM.