Word: microsoft
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...unethical? Ellison begged to differ. His investigators had uncovered evidence that Microsoft was secretly funding "front groups" in order to manipulate public opinion in its favor, he contended. Probing those activities was, Ellison insisted, a "civic duty." He has taken to calling Gates a "convicted monopolist...
Oracle's cloak-and-dagger tactics against its despised enemy Microsoft and its allies--not to mention Ellison's brazen defense of them--left the targets fuming. "They've set new standards for hypocrisy and disingenuousness, even for Oracle," says Microsoft spokesman Mark Murray. The Association for Competitive Technology, one of the organizations Oracle snooped, alleged that spies tried to buy its garbage. Other groups are saying that laptops with information relating to Microsoft were swiped from their offices...
...enough that we win; all others must lose," he has said, paraphrasing Genghis Khan); love of the spotlight (a biography of him by Mike Wilson is titled The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison: God Doesn't Think He's Larry Ellison); a preternatural obsession with Microsoft and Gates; and a management style that sometimes has an inmates-running-the-asylum feel. "This was precisely the kind of goofy thing Larry might dream up," says biographer Wilson. "It struck me as rather out of character for the company. [Oracle president] Ray Lane must have been on vacation." If he wasn...
Ellison and Gates dominate different ends of the software industry. Microsoft's core business is operating systems like Windows, and desktop applications. Oracle focuses on powerful database software that manages large amounts of information for corporate and government clients. Oracle software is perfectly positioned for the information age: it allows large organizations to keep track of personnel, clients and inventory. Oracle has also bet heavily on the Internet, arguably putting the company in a better position than Microsoft for an era in which more computing will be done on the Internet and less on Windows-style operating systems. Wall Street...
That wasn't enough for Ellison. Oracle retained Washington-based Investigative Group International to probe the pro-Microsoft spinners in the antitrust battle. I.G.I. hit pay dirt. Oracle says that in the trash of the Independent Institute--which took out pro-Microsoft ads signed by leading academics--investigators found evidence that Microsoft had given the group more than $200,000. (The Independent Institute insists its positions have been unaffected by any support from Microsoft...