Ellison: If BEA Won't Love Me, Then I'll Find Someone Who Does

Turns out William Klein, BEA Systems’ vice-president of business planning and development, was sorely mistaken when he said “BEA is worth substantially more to Oracle, to others and, importantly, to our shareholders than the price” Oracle offered for it. Certainly, that’s the opinion of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who says any future Oracle takeover bid for BEA Systems–if there ever is one–will be for less than the $7 billion it offered last month.

“If we made another offer [for BEA], the price would be lower,” Ellison said at Oracle’s annual analyst meeting yesterday. “Clearly the $17 price seems too high today. It seems unlikely anyone will want to buy them now. … If their goal was to stay independent, I think they’re doing a good job.“

That said, Oracle’s BEA experience hasn’t exactly put Ellison off his feed. “We are now looking at our second favorite stocks and we have found some attractive” ones, he said.