JackThreads , an online shopping site for men, used Custom Audiences to target specific segments of its customer database and target them with ads for products in categories the company knew were most relevant to them such as sneakers.

FORBES: By The Numbers: Everything You Want To Know About How Facebook Ads Fared In Q4

Computer-database technology developed in the 1970s and 1980s gave advertisers the ability to target individual consumers with their message, bypassing newspapers entirely.

FORBES: The unsentimental publisher

They have resurrected an aging Oracle foe--Ingres, which uses database technology developed 32 years ago by two Berkeley scientists--to target Oracle's biggest source of profit: the steady, high-margin fees it charges for regular upgrades and support.

FORBES: Terry Versus Larry

They are doubling the addressable market for SAP by going after three new target markets: Mobile (thus their acquisition of Sybase.) Second, HANA in-memory database technology.

FORBES: CeBIT: SAP Meets The Press; HANA, Mobile And The Cloud