The biggest reason is to play catch up: Netsuite, founded in 1998, was an early cloud company, and has leaned into that definition in recent years. Oracle, meanwhile, could benefit from a stronger cloud focus. From Forbes: It should also grow Netsuite’s scope, the Wall Street Journal notes: Furthermore, the acquisition makes sense given Oracle’s recent history of purchases: “Oracle in general has been an aggressive acquirer of smaller companies throughout 2016, with recent pick-ups including Opower and Textura,” Techcrunch said of the move. Ellison already owned 39.7 percent of NetSuite, so the move isn’t as large or risky as it might seem. The two companies, while working and to some extent competing in the same space, have always been friendly. All these factors came together to make the acquisition possible, and apparently were even enough to move the money scale pretty far to the right: Opower and Textura were acquired for just $532 million and $663 million, respectively. Image: Wikimedia
