Mike Couch, Chief Executive Officer of Couch & Associates Inc., in response to Oracle buying Eloqua

TORONTO, Dec. 20, 2012 /PRNewswire/ - Today, Oracle Corp agreed to acquire Eloqua, Inc. (NASDAQ: ELOQ), a maker of marketing automation software for approximately $871 million, net of Eloqua's cash. The Eloqua deal builds upon Oracle's previous acquisitions of Vitrue and RightNow.

Oracle's investment into Eloqua will provide further insight into prospects digital body language, helping to streamline the way companies market to customers.

"The combination of Oracle and Eloqua will help enable organizations to provide a highly personalized and unified experience across channels.  As Oracle plans to make Eloqua's marketing automation the centerpiece of its marketing cloud offering, the pace of modern-marketing will revolutionize.

We're excited for our long time partner Eloqua, and look forward to the positive impact this acquisition will have on the marketing automation industry."

The $23.50 per share offer represents a 31 per cent premium to Eloqua's close on the Nasdaq on Wednesday.  The proposed transaction is subject to stakeholder and regulatory approval and is expected to close in the first half of 2013.

About Couch & Associates
Couch & Associates Inc. named 25^th in Profit 200 ranking of Canada's fastest growing companies is a professional marketing services organization that specializes in marketing automation and effective sales enablement. Couch & Associates is comprised of lead consultants and account and project managers that drive initiatives to their 200+ clients ranging from SMB to Fortune 500. The Couch & Associates design and technical teams add value through their knowledge of best practices and experience with marketing technologies and surrounding infrastructures. The team is certified with a variety of software platforms including Eloqua, Salesforce, Netsuite, SLX and Microsoft Dynamics.

About Eloqua
Eloqua provides solutions to help its customers accelerate revenue growth through Revenue Performance Management. Eloqua provides powerful business insight to inform marketing and sales decisions today that drive revenue growth tomorrow. The company's mission is to make its customers the fastest growing companies on Earth. More than 1,000 clients rely on the marketing automation power of Eloqua to improve demand generation and lead management while driving more qualified leads. Eloqua's customers include Adobe, AON, Dow Jones, ADP, Fidelity, Polycom, and National Instruments. The company is headquartered in Vienna, Virginia, with offices in Cambridge, San Francisco, Austin, Toronto, London, Brussels, Frankfurt and Singapore.

SOURCE Couch & Associates