Writes software for application development management and general IT governance issues. Their software attempts to improve productivity throughout the IT departments of large companies and organizations. They are a perfect fit for Oracle because as their software sits atop of the management and development of all software systems within an IT department. It would be easier for Oracle applications to get introduced into companies that have CPWR as a vendor. The company has a pristine balance sheet with $500mm in cash and no debt on the balance sheet. With a $3bb market cap that means 1/6 of that market cap is in cash. Additionally, with $231mm in EBITDA, the company is cheap at just 10.6 times cash flows (versus ORCL's 13) making the acquisition accretive immediately.

INTU, through their Quickbooks software and their various Tax packages, provides financial management and tax solutions to small business, consumers, and accountants. This would be a perfect latch-on for Oracle since ORCL is primarily in large businesses but is starting to face competition on the small business front from MySql. INTU would be a great foot in the door for ORCL to get in the small business. INTU trades at 11.5x cash flows and has almost $1bb net cash in the bank. Analysts expect earnings to go from 1.37 in the year ending Jul 07 to 1.58 in 2008.

Specializes in supply chain management software, accounting softare, CRM software, for midsize companies. Again, a perfect complement to ORCL's focus on larger customers. The company trades at 11.2x cash flows, making any acquisition immediately accretive. Additrionally, analysts expect earnings to go from 74 cents in 2006, to 84 cents in 2007 to 95 cents in 2008. The company has beat or met analyst estimates for the past four quarters.

Software that helps integrate disparate application software packages throughout the enterprise. For example, if you have ORCL applications on one computer and legacy mainframe databases on another, PRGS software can help integrate them and others. The compoany has $241mm net cash in the bank and trades at just 9x cash flows despite estimated double digit growth.

While many enterprises still use Windows on the desktop, many backoffice operations such as storage devices, networking apps, etc run on top of open source operating system Linux. RHAT is the go-to company for installing, consulting, and building Linux-based applications. Its often directly competing against MSFT for who controls the operating systems of every machine in the enterprise. Growth is still strong, with revenues expected to go from $400mm this year to $513mm in 2008.

Symantec, a provider of both security and storage software, devices, and services, is the largest company on this list at a $15bb market cap. But it wouldn't surprise me to see ORCL buy the company. SYMC has gone from high flyer to cheap as it poorly integrated storage company Veritas. Oracle has mastered the integration process, smoothly latching on Peoplesoft and Seibel despite disparate corporate cultures and even a hostile battle for PSFT. SYMC at 9x cash flows, could be the next in line for a hostile battle.

Websense provides the software that integrates securely various enterprise-based applications into a unified web platform. Their software is primarily used at the firewall level to securely protect enterprise data. The company trades for 10x cash flows, and has $326mm net cash in the bank with no debt.