Software giant Oracle is acquiring Taleo Corp., a publicly held firm that provides talent management software, including an applicant tracking system for staffing firms. Oracle will pay $1.9 billion net of Taleo’s cash and debt.

“Human capital management has become a strategic initiative for organizations,” said Thomas Kurian, executive vice president, Oracle Development. “Taleo’s industry-leading talent management cloud is an important addition to the Oracle Public Cloud.”

Taleo’s board has OK’d the acquisition, and the deal is set to close in mid-2012 based on stockholder approval and regulatory approval.

Taleo’s cloud manages 15 percent of all U.S. hires with more than 5,000 businesses using it, according to Oracle. Taleo’s software-as-a-service offerings include Taleo Enterprise, for larger firms, and Taleo Business Edition for smaller firms. Taleo reported revenue of $308.9 million in 2011, an increase of 30.2 percent from the previous year. It posted a net loss of $14.5 million in 2011, down from net income of $420,000 in 2010.

Staffing firms are just one subset of Taleo’s customers. Examples of large companies using the company’s talent management software include Best Buy, Dell, American Airlines and Hyatt. Oracle reported that Hyatt uses Taleo software for recruiting with Taleo prescreening tools and behavioral assessments. Hyatt recruiters can also access the Taleo system via mobile devices to make offers on open positions. Hyatt has more than 75,000 employees in 45 countries.

 Taleo is based in Dublin, Calif., and has more than 1,400 employees worldwide.