Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) is poised to make various investors filthy rich as it closes in on a deal for tech startup Moat. According to multiple sources, a deal worth more than $850 million could be on the table, an amount that could result in a return of more than 10X to investors. To date, the startup has raised $67.5 million in four funding rounds.
Big Winners
Mayfield Funds is set to be the biggest winner if a deal in the range of $850 comes to fruition given that it was one of the biggest shareholders. Menlo Park-based fund led the $13 million series B funding in 2012 thereby placing it in pole position for a substantial payout once a deal is inked.
Other investment funds believed to be on the line for huge payouts on an Oracle deal include First Round capital, Vast Ventures, and Lerer. Chairman of the Moat Board, Michael Walrath, could also receive a big cheque having invested in the startup since its early seed funding days that included funding from CEO, Jonah Goodhart.
Oracle acquisition of Moat does not come as a surprise as the company is aggressively looking for ways to position itself on the fast growing digital ads business. The startup has made a name for itself on acting as an auditor general in providing information of whether ads are reaching their desired audience and whether they appear when they are supposed to.
Oracle Cloud Play
Major advertising platforms such Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) have already integrated Moat tools on their platforms thereby making it a reliable tool for verifying marketing campaigns. Such partnerships are the ones that have allowed the tech giant to command the huge valuation on the Street.
Once the deal is complete, Moat will operate as an independent platform while integrated on Oracle Data Cloud. The acquisition allows Oracle to buy its way into the multibillion-cloud game that continues to show signs of robust growth.
It now awaits to be seen if Moat acquisition will fuel startup acquisition after just a handful of deals in recent years.
Oracle stock was up by $0.41 in Monday trading session closing the day at highs of $44.84 a share.
