Oracle to buy rival BEA for $8.5 billion

Notching another conquest in its push to create a one-stop shop for business software, Oracle Corp. is snapping up rival BEA Systems Inc. for $8.5 billion in a deal reached after several months of acrimony.

The agreement announced Wednesday extends a three-year spree in which Oracle has spent about $35 billion buying dozens of smaller competitors.

San Jose-based BEA represents Oracle’s most expensive purchase since it paid $11.1 billion for PeopleSoft Inc. in early 2005. Part of Oracle’s expense would be offset by $1.3 billion in cash that it expects to inherit from BEA after the deal is completed this year.

The all-cash price of $19.38 a share represents a 24% premium from BEA’s closing stock price Tuesday. It’s 42% higher than where BEA’s shares stood before Oracle launched an unsolicited bid of $17 a share that was rebuffed late last year.

Redwood Shores, Calif.-based Oracle’s dogged pursuit of BEA underscores how much it prizes the company’s middleware – computer coding that helps business programs run more smoothly on underlying databases.