Making sense of Oracle's acquisition spree (SearchOracle.com)

Oracle has been on an acquisition tear in recent years, picking up more than 20 companies and upping its ownership stake in several others. In the midst of this buying spree -- which included the purchase of customer relationship management (CRM) giant Siebel Systems, a bloody battle for CRM mainstay PeopleSoft, and the purchases of a host of smaller applications companies that opened Oracle up to new industry verticals -- Oracle announced Project Fusion, a bold plan to enable all the spoils of its acquisitions to run seamlessly on the Oracle Fusion Middleware platform.