Enterprise software giant Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) announced Tuesday plans to acquire FatWire, a software company specializing in web experience management, for an undisclosed sum.

While Oracle has an established presence in the content management space, particularly when it comes to portals, for the most part it hasn't gained its position due to fast and furious M&A activity.

Oracle did gain much of it's enterprise content management capability from a 2006 acquisition of Stellent (.pdf) but it has recently shied away from other content management buys. Oracle's latest move shows the company is ready to branch out and web experience management is a concept it can get behind.

WEM and FatWire are practically synonymous: "The new web is all about engagement--that is the reason why rich media, social networking, targeting and personalization have seen tremendous interest...integration between each step of the entire process of managing a web presence to delivering the ultimate web experience will be the next big thing," said FatWire's President and CEO Yogesh Gupta back in 2009.

"FatWire products will give Oracle the ability to provide a complete suite of software that empowers web marketers to engage visitors," said Hasan Rizvi, senior vice president at Oracle, in a statement.

FatWire's solutions will extend Oracle's presence in business intelligence, customer relationship management and enterprise content management, said Kumar Vora, senior vice president of development at Oracle in a letter to customers. He added that FatWire's experience integrating and scaling solutions across web, mobile and social channels is especially appealing.

FatWire also complements Oracle's application products including Oracle Customer Relationship Management and ATG Web Commerce, according a statement.

The acquistion appears to primarily benefit Oracle, but Gupta asserts that the acquisition will provide FatWire's current customers with "dramatically expanded products and services to help them achieve their online customer experience goals."

Oracle said it expects the deal to be finalized "mid-year 2011," but until the purchase is complete, each company will operate independently. Shortly after the announcement, however, a large red button appeared on the FatWire homepage, saying "Oracle buys FatWire" and redirecting to the Oracle website.

For more:
- see the Oracle press release
- see Oracle.com/FatWire

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