Oracle Buys Collective Intellect to Bolster Social Media Analysis

Larry Ellison of Oracle is considered one of the most competitive men in Silicon Valley. On Tuesday, he demonstrated why yet again.

Oracle said it had acquired Collective Intellect, a social media analysis firm, just a day after Salesforce.com agreed to buy Buddy Media for $689 million.

Terms of the deal for Collective Intellect were not disclosed.

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With its latest transaction, Oracle is hoping to build up its ability to analyze social media for customers. Collective Intellect’s cloud-based software claims to be able to scan Twitter messages and blog posts to determine intent and interests.

It is the second such deal Oracle has made in as many weeks. On May 23, the company bought Vitrue for a reported $300 million.

In a presentation, Oracle said Collective Intellect had helped CNBC predict that a major discount retailer would not meet sales projections, based on scanning customers’ online messages.

“Gaining intelligence from consumer conversations across social media, and knowing customers’ intentions and interests, helps organizations create better products and deliver better service,” Thomas Kurian, an executive vice president for development at Oracle, said in a statement. “Collective Intellect’s leading cloud-based applications for social media monitoring, combined with Oracle’s social relationship platform, offers a complete social experience to our customers.”

The deal is expected to close by the end of the year.

Correction: June 5, 2012
An earlier version of this article misidentified the company being acquired in two instances. It is Collective Intellect, not Collective Internet.