Oracle invests in Indian firm i-flex

Oracle invests in Indian firm i-flex

Oracle is going Indian with their latest investment. The world’s second largest software company and the maker of the popular Oracle database and owners of PeopleSoft Inc have now taken a majority stake in India’s i-flex. The company announced this news yesterday and has taken 41% of the shares in the company. I-flex is based in Mumbai India and the deal would require approval from the regulator authorities.

As per the laws in India, the company is now required to buy up another 20 percent from other i-flex shareholders to make the deal final. The deal’s worth can go up to as much as $316 million if the company pays the same amount for this extra 20% share of the company to the shareholders. The company plans to open the offer this month itself to complete the formalities.

Oracle also said that i-flex is one of the largest software company in India which develops applications for the financial services industry that include investment banking, consumer banking, asset management and investor services Larry Ellison, Oracle CEO, said in a statement: “Banking is a strategic industry for Oracle, with nine out of the top 10 banks already running Oracle ERP applications. Oracle’s overall application strategy is to go beyond ERP and offer customers richer industry-specific functionality. I-flex gets us there in banking.”

The company would continue to operate from their current offices in Mumbai. However, product development, sales, marketing and services would be working closely with the oracle operations in the region. Charles Phillips, Oracle president said in a statement: “The i-flex products will continue to run on IBM software and hardware, and our relationship with i-flex aligns us more closely with IBM solutions for our joint banking customers.”