​Analysis: Oracle, which has a major presence in RTP following its acquisition of Tekelec in 2013, recently acquired AddThis, a provider of analytics and developer of a social sharing suite. Will the deal pay off? Technology Business Research offers this analysis.

HAMPTON, N.H. – Cross-screen capabilities and network effect add value for Oracle Data Cloud Oracle’s acquisition of AddThis, a Web analytics and social sharing suite, will extend and enhance Oracle Data Cloud as a Data as a Service (DaaS) offering.

TBR estimates Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) acquired the 150-employee company for between $200 million and $250 million, and believes AddThis’ annual revenue run rate is approximately $30 million.

AddThis technology comprises tool kits, also referred to as widgets, that enable consumers to perform a variety of actions on a site, including social sharing or following, email registration, and content recommendation.

TBR believes Oracle’s DaaS business will benefit primarily from expanded audience network and enriched audience profiles. While BlueKai technology, which Oracle purchased in 2014, will continue to serve as the foundation for Oracle Data Cloud’s third-party audience exchange and co-op business, it focuses largely on desktop audiences.

The widgets created by AddThis for publishers are developed for audience intelligence in mobile and cross-device environments. As a result, TBR believes the acquisition of AddThis will enable Oracle to gain greater insight into consumer cross-device engagement, bolstering its data exchange while simultaneously providing millions of new touchpoints that will strengthen Oracle’s device ID graph.

AddThis tool kits are used by a reported 15 million publishers, which are visited by 1.9 billion individuals per month.

While Oracle announced it will leverage first-party data from AddThis assets as part of its data cloud offerings, TBR believes many of the widgets can be cross-leveraged, expanding Oracle Marketing Cloud capabilities.

Oracle expands footprint with publishers and advertisers

With more than 1,500 vendors in the market, the marketing technology ecosystem is fragmented. TBR believes any reduction or consolidation in the number of vendors managed by publishers would positively impact the industry. While AddThis claims 15 million publishers as clients, TBR believes the lines between publishing and advertising have blurred, particularly with the rise of content marketing.

We believe Oracle will gain new inroads with publishers and advertisers as a result of the acquisition; neither are core customers for Oracle historically, but both represent significant revenue opportunities in the digital economy.

Few players with scale of AddThis remain TBR believes AddThis represents one of the largest independent players in the social plug-in niche.

In response to the acquisition, peers such as Adobe, which launched an audience exchange co-op in 4Q14 that includes AddThis as a partner, may seek to acquire ShareThis — the company TBR believes is the second-largest vendor combining social plug-ins and analytics in its suite.

While the data layer may be most valuable to enterprise technology vendors with data exchanges, TBR believes the applications and widgets may warrant those vendors use an enterprise marketing cloud such as SAP hybris or IBM to vie for ShareThis or a smaller, growth-stage startup.

(C) TBR

Technology Business Research, Inc. is a leading independent technology market research and consulting firm specializing in the business and financial analyses of hardware, software, professional services, and telecom vendors and operators. Serving a global clientele, TBR provides timely and actionable market research and business intelligence in a format that is uniquely tailored to clients’ needs. Our analysts are available to address clientspecific issues further or information needs on an inquiry or proprietary consulting basis. TBR has been empowering corporate decision makers since 1996. For more information please visit www.tbri.com.