ORCL: Oracle Buys SPL, Expands Oracle's Applications Drive into Utilities and Public Sector

Oracle today announced that it has acquired SPL WorldGroup, a leading provider of revenue and operations management software for the utilities industry and tax management software for government organizations.
SPL delivers best-in-class solutions for customer care & billing, mobile workforce management, outage & distribution management, and asset management that are specifically designed for electric, gas and water utilities. The company's broad suite of industry leading utility solutions supports critical operational business processes, services, markets and geographies. SPL also offers a complementary public sector tax management solution that provides a foundation to manage the financial relationships a governmental entity has with its constituents.

"With the addition of SPL, Oracle plans to delivers the first end-to-end packaged revenue and operations management solution for investor-owned and public sector utilities," said Charles Phillips, President, Oracle. "Conventional, customized solutions have proven inefficient, inflexible and costly. Oracle is putting utilities in control to enable greater business insight, increased service profitability and customer loyalty. In addition, SPL's tax management solution solves the revenue management needs of public sector enterprises."

"Mission-critical systems for operational functions are a priority software spend for utilities," said Larry Hagewood, CEO at SPL. "We expect our combined solutions will help facilitate the transformation of utilities to leading edge infrastructure that creates competitive advantage for our customers."

SPL management and employees will form a dedicated global utilities business unit within Oracle focused on utilities industry specific solutions, and will continue to support the development of tax management software for the public sector. Larry Hagewood will lead the unit as General Manager.

SPL was purchased from private equity funds managed by GFI Energy Ventures LLC. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.