Database giant Oracle is reported to be mulling over the acquisition of hospitality and retail tech vendor Micros Systems in a deal worth over $5 billion, according to a report in Bloomberg which cited people familiar with the matter.

Executives of the two firms are reportedly carrying out negotiations, though Bloomberg says there’s no guarantee any deal will be completed. But if the deal does go ahead, it would become Oracle’s largest acquisition since its $& billion swoop for Sun Microsystems back in 2010.

The acquisition would help Oracle bolster its cloud offerings as it scrambles for ways to better compete with rivals like SAP, Salesforce.com and Workday. The move mirrors Oracle’s usual modus operandi of securing new technologies via acquisition – over the last decade its bought more than 100 companies for a total of $50 billion, of which about 20 were specialists in their respective industries, notes Bloomberg.

Oracle has come in for a lot of criticism for waking up to the cloud so late, but it’s displayed a lot of aggression in recent months, buying up vendors that can help it boost its lineup of product offerings. Last December, it swooped on Reponsys for $1.5 billion, a move that’s boosted its position in the business-to-consumer market. Most recently, in February, it bought out a startup called BlueKai with an eye on adding its tech to its marketing platform.

Buying Micros Systems gives Oracle a vendor that possesses significant ties to the hospitality and retail sectors. Micros Systems, which is based in Maryland, provides a range of on-premise and cloud-based solutions that include point-of-sale, property management, central systems, business intelligence, e-commerce, distributed order management and labor management applications. It boasts a huge customer base – its products are used by more than 567,000 businesses in 180 countries, including hotels, casinos, retail stores and travel agencies.

Oracle and Micros Systems already have an existing relationship, as the latter uses Oracle Software for its hotels’ application suite.

If it does acquire Micros Systems, Oracle would likely align the company’s products with its own software for e-commerce, marketing and support, giving it an advantage over rivals such as SAP and Salesforce.com, both of which are putting together similar product suites of their own.

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