Inside sources told Demand Gen Report that the acquisition of Eloqua by Oracle is now scheduled to close Feb. 8, and Oracle officials have approved a major redesign of the Eloqua-branded web site and plans for its Eloqua Experience 2013 user conference.
The go-ahead for the web site redesign and user conference are early indications that Oracle will support a continuation of Eloqua’s brand presence rather than rolling it into Oracle’s enterprise platform, sources told Demand Gen Report. Earlier this month, some industry observers and Eloqua users expressed concern that the Eloqua brand might be folded into the Oracle platform, as Oracle has done with other acquisitions.
Sources said that Oracle’s management team wants to build on Eloqua’s strong culture and community and they are looking to incorporate some of those elements into Oracle. However, a source that follows both companies questioned how committed Oracle is to maintaining Eloqua’s culture, calling it “uncharacteristic of Oracle.”
Insiders told Demand Gen Report that it is still undecided if Eloqua will have a presence at Salesforce.com‘s Dreamforce and Cloudforce events. Eloqua and Salesforce have a number of customers in common, and Eloqua has been a major sponsor of Salesforce customer events in the past. However, sources said it was unclear if Eloqua was still invited to those events or if Eloqua’s new owners are questioning their need to attend them.