Oracle agrees to buy Australia’s Aconex for $1.19 billion

Melbourne:Oracle Corp. agreed to buy Aconex Ltd, an Australian company that makes cloud-based collaboration software for construction projects, for 1.56 billion Australian dollar ($1.19 billion) cash as it tries to gain more customers in the rapidly growing market.

The deal values Aconex at $7.80 Australian dollar per share, 47% more than Friday’s closing price. Aconex shares rose to $7.63 Australian dollar at 11:09am in Sydney trading on Monday.

Redwood City, California-based Oracle has been looking to refashion its business around internet-based products. The strategy was dealt a setback last quarter when cloud-computing sales missed analysts’ estimates. The company also gave a disappointing forecast for cloud growth in last week’s earnings report, which sent shares falling the most in three months. Oracle has been turning to acquisitions to accelerate its shift to the cloud, including last year’s $9 billion purchase of NetSuite Inc.

Aconex’s board unanimously recommended the deal, the Melbourne-based company said in a statement Monday. The company’s directors, who represent about 13.6% of the stock, will vote in favour of the bid in the absence of a superior proposal.

Aconex listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in December 2014, selling shares at $1.90 Australian dollar apiece. It has more than 70,000 customers and its cloud-based software has been used on 16,000 projects across construction, infrastructure and energy in 70 countries, according to its website. Bloomberg