Oracle is set to acquire business-to-consumer marketing software vendor Responsys for US$1.5 billion in a bid to flesh out its own capabilities as well as strike back at rivals such as Salesforce.com and Microsoft.

Yahoo has acquired Ptch, the startup behind a mobile app that allowed users to combine photos and video on their phones into movies, and the service will shut down by January.

Yahoo has acquired LookFlow, an image recognition company, as part of a plan to improve photo discovery on Flickr, Yahoo announced Wednesday.

Oracle is hoping to differentiate its CRM (customer relationship management) software from the competition with the acquisition of BigMachines, whose cloud-based system helps salespeople quickly put together and price complex orders.

Oracle has acquired Compendium in an effort to offer a more complete platform for online marketing.

Facebook has agreed to acquire mobile data compression startup Onavo and plans to use its technology in an effort to make Internet access more affordable, Facebook said on Monday.

Continuing to build its portfolio of software for supporting electronic commerce operations, IBM has acquired Xtify, a provider of push notification-based marketing services for mobile platforms. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Google has acquired Flutter, a gesture recognition company whose technology lets people control music and movies on their desktop by waving their hands.

SAP is expanding its arsenal of data-analysis software with the acquisition of predictive analytics vendor KXEN, announced Tuesday.

Twitter has acquired Trendrr, a data analysis company, to better leverage users' tweets about television to draw in more advertisers.

Software AG is adding mashup and real-time analytic capabilities to its lineup with the acquisition of JackBe. Terms of the deal, which was announced Thursday, were not disclosed.

Facebook said it is buying Mobile Technologies, a company known for its speech recognition and voice-to-voice translation technology.

SAP has given customers a peek into how it will compete with the likes of Oracle and IBM in the growing market around CEM (customer experience management) software with the acquisition of commerce software vendor Hybris.

There's no shortage of speculation about why Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is buying the Washington Post. It could be for access to local news, content deals involving the Amazon Kindle, political self-interest or even ego.

Apple has acquired Locationary, a start-up based in Toronto that provides a platform for aggregating and managing local business listings.

Yahoo has made yet another acquisition, this time picking up Beijing-based data analysis startup Ztelic to boost its research and development efforts in China.

Put your hands in the air - Intel has made another major push into the world of touch-free computing. The chipmaker has confirmed that it bought Israel-based Omek Interactive, a gesture-recognition firm. Omek (which means 'depth' in Hebrew) offers gesture-recognition products for computer and software makers that can track full-body movements as well as finer detail hand and finger gestures.

Yahoo said Friday that it has bought contact management specialist Xobni for an undisclosed amount, presumably to enhance Yahoo Mail and its related applications.

Further boosting its presence in the field of product marketing, Adobe is acquiring campaign management software provider Neolane for approximately US$600 million in cash.

Google is buying the crowdsourced mapping app developer Waze, in a move geared toward adding more real-time navigation tools to its own Maps software, the company announced Tuesday.

Marketo says it has created tools that put it far ahead of rival marketing automation software vendors by making it much easier to run targeted campaigns, and more effective ones to boot.