(Reuters) - Oracle Corp (ORCL.O) struck a deal to buy RightNow Technologies Inc (RNOW.O) for around $1.5 billion, agreeing to pay a nearly 20 percent premium for the cloud-based customer service company.

RightNow's shares rose 19 percent in premarket trading.

Oracle has been stepping up its push to provide customers a range of services remotely through cloud technology including sales force automation, human resources and databases.

Oracle said on Monday it would pay $43 for each share of RightNow. The company's shares, which closed at $35.96 on Friday, rose to $42.87 in premarket trading on Monday.

Oracle said it expects the deal to close in late 2011 or early next year.

Rightnow may be required to pay Oracle a termination fee of around $60 million if it accepts a higher bid from another party. The termination fee could be around $18 million if the deal is terminated under certain other cases.

RightNow, which competes with much larger rival Salesforce.com (CRM.N) in offering cloud-based customer services software, has benefited from a cycle in which more of its customers are looking to replace on-site software with cheaper Web-based products. Cloud computing allows companies to store data on remote servers.

In July, the company raised its full-year recurring revenue growth outlook to 27 percent from a previous 24 percent.

The company was started by Chief Executive Greg Gianforte 15 years ago and over 2,000 organizations use its software.

(Reporting by Yinka Adegoke and Michael Erman in New York, editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Dave Zimmerman)

• Add new comment

Your name : *

Your e-mail address :*

Comment: *

Your Message Goes Here

CAPTCHA*

Save Comment