Oracle To Buy Vitrue For Its Social Media Reach

Vitrue's social marketing and engagement platform is used by marketing professionals to centrally create, publish, moderate and manage social marketing campaigns, according to Oracle, Redwood Shores, Calif. It helps businesses reach out to customers through Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and YouTube.

Oracle said in a statement that it will combine Vitrue's technology with its sales, service, commerce, social data management and analytics products "to create [an] advanced and comprehensive social relationship platform." Vitrue's Software-as-a-Service applications will become part of the Oracle Cloud product lineup.

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"The proliferation of social media and an increased demand by consumers to engage with brands across multiple social channels is driving chief marketing officers to look for an integrated social marketing platform," said Thomas Kurian, executive vice president, Oracle Development, in a statement. "Vitrue’s leading social marketing and engagement platform coupled with Oracle’s leading sales, service and commerce products offers a complete social experience solution to our customers."

Oracle said it expects to complete the acquisition sometime this summer and that Vitrue's management and employees are expected to join the company.

Privately held Vitrue, based in Atlanta, reported in January that its revenue grew 100 percent in 2011 from 2010, although it did not provide actual financial statistics. Vitrue has more than 500 clients worldwide.