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Eloqua's Newsjacking from Oracle In 2010, computing technology powerhouse Oracle acquired the marketing automation program Market2Lead. This was a significant event because it was a leading global technology company taking on a company in an emerging space. To commemorate the announcement, here is what Oracle published on the subject: Um…that's it? This really wasn't much help to news outlets that were looking for material to use in their reporting on the acquisition. 3 lines isn't exactly ideal for quotable insight to include in an article. It was in this lack of information that one of Market2Lead's competitors found a great opportunity. Eloqua CEO, Joe Payne, decided that if Oracle or Market2Lead weren't going to comment more on the announcement then why not Eloqua? So, Eloqua published a blog post titled "Oracle Joins The Party" in which Joe commented on the announcement and provided great commentary on marketing automation in general. For people looking for a great soundbite, Joe's article was really the only option available. And so, nearly all of the articles about Oracle's Market2Lead acquisition ended up having much of the content devoted towards Eloqua, Market2Lead's direct competitor! Less than 3 years later, Oracle acquired Eloqua for $871 million and became their primary marketing automation tool. Sure, this example wasn't as big as Oreo's Superbowl tweet, but it was extremely relevant to Eloqua's audience and even helped sell their business! Oracle and Market2Lead Oracle has acquired the intellectual property assets of Market2Lead, a provider of demand generation and marketing automation software. Market2Lead's technology helps companies improve demand generation to increase sales and marketing effectiveness. Oracle plans to integrate Market2Lead's technology into Oracle CRM applications. The financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. 16

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