Oracle, once wary of Web-based applications, has now embraced the cloud. On Thursday, the technology giant agreed to buy Taleo, a maker of online human resources software, for $1.9 billion.

The acquisition - Oracle's second major purchase of a cloud-related services company - underscores the shift taking place in the enterprise software industry as more businesses turn to the Web to run their operations. "It's a major move for Oracle," Paul D Hamerman, a Forrester analyst, said in an interview.

"Larry Ellison used to be quite vocal that this sector would not be very profitable, but he's changed his tune because customers prefer the Web for certain applications," he added, referring to Oracle's co-founder and chief executive.

The billionaire's vote of confidence is in many ways a coming-of-age moment for the market, which emerged during the late 1990s. At the tail end of the dot-com boom, startups like Salesforce.com began to offer Web-based business applications on asubscription basis.

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com