Oracle to buy remaining stake in i-flex?

BANGALORE: Oracle Corp today hinted that it might acquire the remaining stake in i-flex solutions.

"There is always a possibility," said John Wookey, Senior Vice-President, Applications Development, Oracle. He was responding to a specific question on whether the enterprise software company would go in for 100 per cent acquisition of i-flex.

Oracle had announced last month that it was acquiring up to 61 per cent stake in i-flex solutions in a $909 million deal.

Wookey indicated that i-flex would be retained as an independent unit of Oracle. "Keeping its independence is critical in aggressively attacking the market,” he said.

Wookey is responsible for the strategic direction and development of JD Edwards, PeopleSoft and Oracle business applications.

He said acquisition of i-flex was "critical" to Oracle's ambition to become global number one in the banking software domain.

"Banking is a critical industry for us," Wookey said. "i-flex is a perfect partner." Oracle is now looking to offer its global customers integrated solutions across the front, middle and back-office. i-flex would give Oracle a clear leadership in banking and drive the latter's strategy in this space, he added.

i-flex has a customer base of 575 banks spread across 11 countries and the firm has an employee base of close to 5,500 people globally.

Maintaining that India is going to be "critical" on the global scene in the coming decades, Wookey said acquisition of i-flex is a "great addition to that."