Oracle has entered into an agreement to acquire Taleo Corporation, a provider of cloud-based talent management for approximately $1.9 billion, net of Taleo's cash and debt. Taleo's Talent Management Cloud helps organizations attract, develop, motivate and retain human capital to improve performance and drive growth.

"Together, Oracle and Taleo expect to create a cloud offering for organizations to manage their Human Resource operations and employee careers. The combination is expected to empower employees and managers to effectively manage careers throughout their entire employment, enable organizations to retain talent and optimize costs, and improve the employee experience through faster on boarding and better collaboration with team members via social media, " Oracle said in a statement.

The Board of Directors of Taleo has unanimously approved the transaction. The transaction is expected to close mid-year 2012, subject to Taleo stockholder approval, certain regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

In December, SAP also announced plans to buy another human-resources software company, SuccessFactors, for $3.4 billion.