AMSTERDAM—Oracle announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Front Porch Digital, provider of content storage management for large-scale media assets. The proposed transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in 2014. Until the transaction closes, Oracle and Front Porch Digital will continue to operate independently and it is business as usual. No transaction value was disclosed.
Oracle, a $180 billion enterprise digital storage behemoth with 400,000 customers and $11.3 billion in revenues last quarter, systematically is expanding its reach into cloud services, The Motley Fool said. Cloud services, while generating only $450 million last quarter, is the company’s fastest growing segment, The Fool’s Brian Nichols said. The company noted the continuing need for managing media assets, and that Front Porch has a footprint in the space comprising 550 companies worldwide, including Discovery, A&E, the BBC and the U.S. Library of Congress. Privately held Front Porch headquarters are in Louisville, Colo., between Denver and Boulder, and according to its Linkedin profile, it has between 51 and 200 employees.
“The combination of Oracle with Front Porch Digital is expected to create the most comprehensive, enterprise-grade cloud and on-premise content storage management solution to help organizations efficiently manage the growing,” Oracle said in a statement.
Front Porch’s product line includes the DivaSolutions content storage management system, the Lynx media-grade cloud network; and Samma digitizing technology, which it acquired in 2008.
Oracle said after the deal closes, it will make “significant engineering investments in Front Porch Digital’s content storage management solutions,” for more rapid delivery. It will “further optimize Front Porch Digital solutions with Oracle technologies, while maintaining the technology-agnostic profile for Front Porch Digital’s offerings.... Oracle is committed to preserving and building upon these existing partnerships and open standards, such as Archive eXchange Format, to continue delivering integrated and seamless solutions for customers.”
Oracle also said it is “currently reviewing the existing Front Porch Digital product roadmap and will be providing guidance to customers in accordance with Oracle’s standard product communication policies. Any resulting features and timing of release of such features as determined by Oracle’s review of Front Porch Digital’s product roadmap are at the sole discretion of Oracle. All product roadmap information, whether communicated by Front Porch Digital or by Oracle, does not represent a commitment to deliver any material, code, or technology, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. It is intended for information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract.”
