December 22, 2012
Yesterday, Oracle announced its intention to purchase Eloqua for approximately $871 million (USD). Oracle, a purveyor of ERP application software, database software and computing hardware would acquire a firm that specializes in Marketing automation software.
Eloqua traditionally competes with firms like Marketo, Pardot and others. From the experience of my firm’s clients, products in this space have been exceptionally strong in:
- Tracking the effectiveness of marketing campaigns across several media types (e.g., mail, email, events, etc.)
- Scoring leads and successfully moving them from raw leads to educated prospects
- Tightening the relationship and handoffs between Sales and Marketing
- Driving better leads to Sales (and, as a result, improving top line revenue results)
Eloqua has had a strong linkage to Salesforce.com, a long-time cloud CRM (customer relationship management)/SFA (sales force automation) vendor. Their presence at the annual DreamForce events that Salesforce.com hosts has almost always been big, front & center. Their booths at these events are heavily trafficked and on par with those of Marketo and the biggest integrators. To say that Salesforce.com users know who Eloqua is would be a gross understatement.
