By Tom Bradley

Oracle, which is a holding in the Equity Fund, announced a takeover bid for RightNow Technologies this week. In the past, Oracle has proven to be an effective and disciplined acquirer, but there is talk on this one that they paid too much – over 5 times sales and 50 times 2012 earnings according to the Financial Times.

I don’t think anybody would doubt Oracle, however, if they read the description of RightNow in the regulatory filings. The company sells a "comprehensive customer experience solution for consumer-centric organizations to enable interactions across web, social and contact centre touch points." It’s easy to see what Larry Ellison saw in RightNow.