Oracle is buying Hyperion Solutions, a top seller of business intelligence software, for $3.3 billion in cash, the companies announced. Oracle is paying $55 per share.

The move makes Oracle the leader in "the high growth enterprise performance management market," said Larry Ellison. Oracle now has an "end-to-end performance management system that includes planning, budgeting, consolidation, operational analytics and compliance reporting. "

Hyperion CEO Godfrey Sullivan said:

``Requirements for performance management and business intelligence solutions are increasingly converging,'' Sullivan said in the statement. ``Given the critical need for managers across the enterprise to align operational decisions with strategy, now is the right time for Hyperion to combine with a strategic partner like Oracle.''

The move is the latest incursion into SAP territory, Oracle president Charles Phillips said. "Hyperion is the latest move in our strategy to expand Oracle's offerings to SAP customers. .... . Oracle already has PeopleSoft HR, Siebel CRM, G-Log, Demantra, i-flex, Oracle Retail, and Oracle Fusion Middleware installed at SAP's largest ERP customers. Now Oracle's Hyperion software will be the lens through which SAP's most important customers view and analyze their underlying SAP ERP data."