Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) stock is relatively flat after announcing a $6.7 billion offer to buy BEA Systems (NASDAQ: BEAS). Activist shareholder Carl Icahn has been pressuring BEAS to put itself up for sale, though company officials have said recently that they have no plans to sell. However, investors have driven the share price of BEAS up 32% since the announcement, almost a dollar above ORCL's $17 per share offer price, suggesting expectations of a potential rival bid. CNBC's Jim Cramer predicted earlier this week that SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) would make a bid for BEAS to boost its strength against ORCL. If a rival bid appears, Oracle could end up overpaying for BEAS. If you think this stock won't be rising too far in the coming months, then it could be a good time to look at a bearish hedged play on ORCL.

ORCL stock has been strong over the past few months, hitting a one-year high of $23.00 yesterday. This morning, ORCL opened at $22.40. So far today the stock has hit a low of $22.11 and a high of $22.58. As of 11:05, ORCL is trading at $22.48, up 0.02 (0.1%). The chart for ORCL looks bullish and steady, while S&P gives the stock a very positive 5 STARS (out of 5) strong buy rating.

For a bearish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a December bear-call credit spread above the $25 range. A bear-call credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of call options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make a 5.3% return in 10 weeks as long as ORCL is below $25 at December expiration. Oracle would have to rise by more than 11% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.

ORCL has not been above $25 since 2001 and has shown some resistance around $23 recently. This trade could be risky if the company's earnings (due out in mid-December) are a positive surprise, but even if that happens, this position could be protected by the resistance the stock formed when it topped around $23.

Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer.