Word: ellisons
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...Ellison may have some of the deepest pockets in his industry. Oracle boasts $5 billion cash on hand and $9 billion in annual revenues, and its net income increased 31% in the most recent quarter. But Ellison also faces a whole range of challenges. His biggest asset is Oracle's Database software: 70% of all packaged business applications worldwide run on it, making it as hard to ignore as Microsoft Windows. Even Oracle's biggest rival, German giant SAP, chooses to use Oracle Database over its IBM and Microsoft-made counterparts. Oracle Database is a huge part of that virtual...
Ironically enough, it was PeopleSoft's Conway who first suggested to Ellison last year that the applications side of their businesses should merge. The discussions were cordial--hard to imagine after a week in which Conway compared Ellison to Genghis Khan--and the two companies exchanged fact-finding teams. The sticking point: who would run the joint business. "He said, 'I'm your man,'" says Ellison. "Conway didn't see a single antitrust problem then." (Conway does not dispute this account of the meeting but points out that discussions were over in a matter of hours.) After negotiations broke down...
...Silicon Valley rumors abounded that Oracle was looking to buy someone out. The name mentioned most often was that of Tom Siebel, another of Ellison's estranged proteges and CEO of Siebel Systems. Siebel executive vice president David Schmaier, however, says the company is an "acquirer" as opposed to an "acquiree." (Ellison describes Siebel as "in play" but says the company is too vulnerable for him to consider purchasing...
After his fruitless talks with Ellison, Conway kept looking for a partner, and found it in J.D. Edwards. Their businesses were widely regarded as complementary. PeopleSoft tended to sell to high-end firms, J.D. Edwards to the middle market. Four days later, Ellison announced his competing bid for PeopleSoft. Coincidence? Conway thinks not. "If we were ever looking for confirmation that the J.D. Edwards merger was right for the industry," he says, "Larry provided...
Some analysts concurred. Buying PeopleSoft, they said, would be a onetime adrenaline boost for Oracle, nothing more. The companies are not a natural fit since both are heavily invested in the back office. The only way it makes sense is if Ellison is taking a leaf from the Microsoft playbook: getting bigger, with less competition, is better. Although a combined Oracle-PeopleSoft would not rival SAP's user base, it would be in a more competitive position--and create an ever wider market for Oracle Database. "[Ellison] doesn't need PeopleSoft's products," says Reg King, an analyst...