Oracle (ORCL) will pay $532 million to acquire Opower (OPWR, ) a cloud-based software provider that says it’s used by 100 utility companies for meter reading services for homes and businesses.
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Opower CEO and C-founder Dan Yates said in a statement, “The combination will provide the industry with the most modern, complete cloud applications for the entire utility value chain, from meter to grid to end-customers”.
The offer of US$10.30 per share is at a premium of 30.4 percent to Opower’s close on Friday.
Oracle, an aggressive acquirer, has frequently picked up companies to fill out its offerings, and the company has looked to its cloud-computing business to provide growth. Opower shares, which were trading at less than $8 on Friday, rose 30% to over $10 upon news of the deal with Oracle.
Opower makes software used by utilities to help customers reduce their energy consumption. It enables more than 100 global utilities, including PG&E, Exelon and National Grid, delivering energy efficient solutions to utilities providers.
“Utilities want modern technology solutions that work together to meet their evolving customer, operational and compliance needs”, said Rodger Smith, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Oracle Utilities Global Business Unit.
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Oracle’s stock is down 10% from a year ago, but up 9% so far this year. The Oracle Primavera flagship products have been completely re-architected for the Cloud, and the result is a set of cloud services that are growing rapidly as construction and engineering companies embrace digital transformation. The Opower board has approved the deal and awaits standard regulatory and stockholder approvals.
