Oracle positions itself for future growth with purchase of RightNow, its latest acquisition

Technology giant Oracle announced this week it would purchase RightNow Technologies as it works to expand through acquisitions.

The California-based company said Monday it would purchase the leading provider of cloud-based customer service for roughly $1.5 billion. Oracle's latest announcement continues the firm's trend of increasing its market share and driving revenue and earnings growth through the purchase of smaller competitors.

Unlike IBM, which plans to drive its expansion through business cost reductions and an emphasis on its services division, Oracle has been on a purchasing spree in 2011. With ample cash on hand, the company is seeking to use market clout and the overall tepid economic climate to its advantage as it works to shore up future growth potential, experts say.

Oracle stands to benefit in a number of important ways from its recent acquisition. For one, RightNow's technology will help to improve customer service, officials affirmed. For another, its cloud-based technology will help Oracle achieve business cost reductions in its customer retention department, which will free up capital and bolster its profit margin.

"Oracle is moving aggressively to offer customers a full range of Cloud Solutions including sales force automation, human resources, talent management, social networking, databases and Java as part of the Oracle Public Cloud," Oracle executive vice president Thomas Kurian said in a statement. "RightNow's leading customer service cloud is a very important addition to Oracle's Public Cloud."

The cloud has become one of the hottest words among the tech set, as companies across a broad spectrum of industries have increasingly moved to shift varying aspects of their business away from traditional data houses and toward cloud-based datacenters run by firms like Oracle and Amazon.

Oracle has endeavored to shore up its own cloud computing services as a means of reducing overhead and cutting business costs amid a competitive climate.

"RightNow's products add leading customer experience capabilities that help empower companies to interact with and provide a consistent experience to customers across channels," RightNow chief executive Greg Gianforte affirmed.

The Los Angeles Times reports the deal still needs to be approved by federal regulators.