Having only just finished the takeover of PeopleSoft, Oracle is already scanning the horizon for fresh acquisition targets chief executive Larry Ellison revealed during a presentation to financial analysts.

Ellison talked in detail about his plans to become the leading provider of application servers, from the current number two position.

BEA Systems holds the number one spot, but its market share has been slipping in recent years, according to Ellison.

"A combination of organic growth and maybe one strategic acquisition will put us in a strong number one position [in the application server market]," he said.

Ellison argued that Oracle's position as the largest database vendor allows it to push sales of its application server.

"It is very natural to layer the application server on top of [the database]. They are related areas and related customers," he said.

If Oracle becomes the largest vendor in the application server market, the company could achieve economies of scale that allow it to increase profit margins while reducing prices for customers.

"You make a lot of money moving from number two to number one," Ellison said.

The Oracle chief declined to elaborate on any potential acquisition targets, or specify a timeframe within which he expects to announce a takeover.

The most likely target would be BEA Systems, however. Oracle declared several times last year that it considers BEA as a potential acquisition target.

Ellison declared last week that the integration of PeopleSoft was largely finished, allowing the company to start working on fresh takeovers. Oracle recently announced the shedding of 5,000 workers as part of its integration of PeopleSoft.