Oracle to buy BEA for $7.85 billion

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif. - Business software maker Oracle Corp. said Wednesday it agreed to buy BEA Systems Inc. for about $7.85 billion, a compromise price that ends a months-long dispute over the value of the software company.

Oracle agreed to pay $19.375 per share for BEA, which makes "middleware," the computer coding that helps business applications interact more smoothly with databases.

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