It’s Official: Oracle to Buy Micros for $5.3 Billion

The news from this weekend is now official — Oracle ($ORCL) is buying Micros Systems ($MCRS) for $5.3 billion. Net of cash, the deal comes to $4.6 billion.

The buyout price is $68 per share which is a modest premium over MCRS’s share price from Friday. However, the stock got a big move last week after the rumors came out. This is Oracle’s biggest deal since Sun Microsystems in 2010. In the past 10 years, Oracle has shelled out $50 billion to buy about 100 companies.

In early 1988, shares of MCRS were worth 12.5 cents per share. This deal represents a gain of 544-fold in 26 years.

Let me add a quick note about insider trading. It’s often hard to spot it, but here’s a good example. Check out the minute-by-minute chart below of MCRS for the last week.

You can see when the news broke last Tuesday. But also, look at how the stock crept higher just before that — on Friday and Monday. Is that proof? I don’t know but it’s awfully suspicious.

Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on June 23rd, 2014 at 9:42 am

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