January 16, 2006

Continuing its acquisition of retail software companies, Oracle has acquired B2B and eBusiness application developer 360Commerce for an undisclosed amount.

360Commerce focuses on store-level and point-of-sale (POS) technology, which is a very hot area in retail right now.

According to AMR Research, 26 percent of the 2006 retail IT budget will go towards store technology, and 29 percent of retailers are planning to replace their POS systems this year. As such, "This acquisition gives Oracle the opportunity to grab valuable market share," concludes a research alert from AMR this morning.

AMR points out that Oracle already picked up a POS system in the Retek acquisition, but says that 360Commerce is "more scalable," giving it more potential play in larger retail environments.

360Commerce already counts Home Depot, Sears, Apple, Pep Boys, Gap, CVS, Bose, and Circuit City among its customers.

Source: Line 56