Oracle Corp. agreed to buy Taleo Corp. for about $1.9 billion, its second cloud-computing acquisition in three months, to add Internet-based technology helping companies manage human resources and recruit employees.

Holders of Taleo will get $46 a share, Redwood City, California-based Oracle, the second-largest software company, said today in a statement. That’s 18 percent higher than Taleo’s closing share price yesterday.

Oracle is using acquisitions to build its cloud business as part of efforts to help blunt the impact of a possible slowdown in software sales growth. Cloud services are meant to appeal to customers seeking to save money by letting them access computing power over the Web. Taleo is another fit-in with that strategy, following the $1.5 billion purchase of RightNow Technologies Inc. last year, said Mark Moerdler, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York.

“Taleo is the next-largest player in the talent-management space,” said Moerdler, who rates Oracle “market perform.”

Oracle fell 0.2 percent to $28.68 at 9:56 a.m. New York time. Taleo, based in Dublin, California, jumped 17 percent to $45.52.

Oracle is adding Taleo to RightNow after SAP AG announced the acquisition of San Mateo, California-based SuccessFactors Inc. for $3.4 billion in December, an effort by the German company to try to catch up in the fast-growing cloud-computing market.

Buying Spree

The Taleo transaction would be the largest in the enterprise software industry since November, when Hewlett- Packard Co. bought Autonomy Corp. for more than $10 billion in cash, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Oracle is paying about 136 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, compared with the median of about 14 in 45 similar transactions over the past 5 years, according to the data.

Taleo’s technology is used by 5,000 organizations. The acquisition is expected to close mid-year, Oracle said.

Oracle Chief Executive Officer Larry Ellison has snapped up more than 70 companies in a $40 billion buying spree to add programs that help large corporations manage human resources and operations.