Oracle the world's third-largest software maker, won a three-month-long campaign to buy BEA Systems Inc by raising its bid for the company by 14 percent to $8.5 billion. The companies announced on Wednesday that they have reached a deal. The price that BEA finally agreed to, $19.375 per share in cash, is a compromise between the $17 that Oracle offered in October and the $21 that BEA had demanded.

BEA makes "middleware," which helps business computer systems interact with each other, allowing companies to integrate computer systems running on software that was not originally developed to communicate with each other.

Oracle said the deal is valued at $7.2 billion net of cash on hand of $1.3 billion.

Analysts said the acquisition could also give Oracle an edge in sales of business-management software, a market in which Oracle is the second-largest player after SAP .