Oracle buys call-center software maker InQuira

The company logo is shown at the headquarters of Oracle Corporation in Redwood City, California February 2, 2010.

BOSTON (Reuters) - Oracle Corp (ORCL.O) is buying a tiny maker of software used in customer service call centers as it looks to bolster its offerings that compete with Salesforce.com Inc (CRM.N).

Oracle said on Thursday that it had a deal to buy InQuira, a maker of software that companies use to help call-center agents provide customer service. Its products also enable corporate customers to access information about their accounts over the Web.

InQuira's customers include Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O), 3M Co (MMM.N), Sprint Nextel Corp (S.N) and Bayer AG (BAYGn.DE).

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

The acquisition comes as Oracle looks to catch up with Salesforce.com in the business of providing software as a service that is delivered over the Internet.

Salesforce.com sells software for managing call centers that its customers access via the Web using an ordinary browser. It also sell software used to manage corporate sales activities.

(Reporting by Jim Finkle; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)