Instead, Oracle is likely to focus its buying efforts in a few key areas, according to observers.

"Everyone and his brother" is going after technologies related to the open-source Hadoop framework for large-scale data processing, said Forrester Research analyst James Kobielus.

Oracle has probably been working on its own Hadoop capabilities for years, and possible acquisition targets include Datameer, KarmaSphere and Cloudera, which offer a variety of Hadoop tools and services, he said.

Oracle lacks products in a couple of other key areas, namely mobility and social software, said analyst Ray Wang, CEO of Constellation Research.

"There may be a shift in their portfolio [strategy] to pick up those things," he said.