Oracle announced on Friday that it will purchase marketing software company Responsys for about $1.5 billion ($27 per share). Responsys software will be integrated in the Oracle Marketing Cloud. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has spent about $50 billion in acquisitions over the past decade, as part of the company’s push toward cloud computing and away from software stored on personal computers and servers. The proposed transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2014.

“As a part of the Oracle Marketing Cloud, we’ll be able to accelerate our vision of giving marketers across all industries the most advanced platform for orchestrating customer experiences over time and across channels,” says Responsys. “We couldn’t be more thrilled about what this means for our customers and employees.”

“This one has a potential to be a very nice acquisition for Oracle because there is not a lot of overlap with what Responsys does on the marketing side,” said Matthew Hedberg, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets. “It makes a lot of sense, and it certainly accelerates their strategic transition to more cloud-based revenue.”

“The Redwood City, California-based company is adding to its array of marketing software as it tries to boost growth and square off against Salesforce.com Inc. and Adobe Systems Inc. in courting spending by chief marketing officers, who sit outside traditional information-technology departments,” reports Bloomberg. “Responsys, based in San Bruno, California, makes software that lets businesses including Nordstrom Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co. tailor e-mail campaigns to consumers and track how the ads perform.”

Salesforce and Adobe are among those also chasing CMO spending through acquisitions. Salesforce picked up Responsys competitor ExactTarget in July, in addition to Web marketing companies Buddy Media and Radian 6 Technologies. “Adobe, the top maker of graphic design tools, has also purchased a string of companies to build a marketing software franchise that now represents 30 percent of its revenue,” notes Bloomberg.