The two most obvious examples are NetSuite, where Ellison was a founding investor, and Salesforce.com where CEO Marc Benioff is an Oracle alum — and where, come to think of it, Ellison was a founding investor, too. When you start considering the numerous Oracle alumni who have gone on to other things, Ellison’s reach becomes longer still.

The graphic below comes from the folks at Software Advice and aims to illustrate via these numerous connections the impact that Ellison and Oracle have had throughout the tech and software industry.

The top half represents independent companies where former Oracle execs either run the show or are in senior roles, while the bottom half shows companies that Oracle has acquired — and, let’s admit it, there have been a lot of them — where Oracle alumni in senior roles have found themselves re-integrated back into the mother ship.

While I can’t help but think the graphic is incomplete — it sure seems like there must be other companies that could be on it — it sure is interesting to look at.

Ellison is scheduled to take the stand in his company’s ongoing legal battle with SAP today, and if his testimony is anything like the press releases and letters to the editor he’s been broadcasting about the case the past few months, the software firm’s ears will bleed before he’s through. Unless its legal team somehow manages to keep him from turning the witness stand into a bully pulpit, a difficult task given Ellison’s mercurial manner and “Art of War”-style tactical thinking.

Handling Ellison’s direct examination is David Boies, Oracle’s lead litigator in the case.

PREVIOUSLY:

• Oracle Lands Early Shots in SAP Trial
• Your Honor, We Object to Mr. Ellison’s Repeated Use of the Term “Slimy Weasels”
• Oracle to HP CEO: Chicken!
• Oracle Vs. SAP: We Got a Right to Pick a Little Fight–Bonanza!
• SAP’s Tab in Oracle Case: $120 Million and Counting
• Gag Order Denied in Oracle, SAP Trial
• Ellison Taunts HP CEO a Second Time
• SAP to Ellison: Save the Drama for Your Mama
• Ellison to HP CEO: “Warrior, Come Out to Plaaeeay!
• SAP: Please Gag Oracle
• HP Scandal Sucks in New York Times Columnist Over Conflict of Interest
• Welch to HP Board: You Don’t Know Jack!
• Insiders Criticize Ellison For HP CEO Slam
• Was Apotheker HP’s First Choice of CEO?
• HP Names Ex-SAP Chief Apotheker as CEO

Testifying in an Oakland, Calif., courtroom Thursday, Phillips–who once managed marketing and large-customer relations at Oracle–said his former employer would have charged SAP billions of dollars for a license to use the IP that its TomorrowNow subsidiary illegally downloaded. For something like that, Phillips said, you “would ask for $3 billion or $4 billion and you’d want it up front.”

A nasty blow for SAP, which contends it owes Oracle only $40 million. And only the first of several struck yesterday.

In a videotaped deposition shown to jurors, former SAP executive board member Shai Agassi testified that SAP acquired TomorrowNow in the hopes of taking maintenance revenues away from Oracle. Worse, he said the company was well aware of the risk that Oracle would sue over the acquisition. “There’s always a chance Oracle could sue,” he said. “Oracle would sue if we dripped sandwich sauce on its lawn.”

Or, as former TomorrowNow developer John Ritchie testified, if it discovered a Web scraper sucking copyrighted materials off its support Web site and “hammering their servers so hard…it was like a denial of service attack.”

Another ugly blow. And then there was this from Agassi, who, in remarks that must have had Hewlett-Packard’s board of directors scrambling for the Mylanta, fingered current HP CEO and former SAP chief Léo Apotheker as one of two executives charged with overseeing TomorrowNow after SAP acquired the company. “I was the guy who led the evaluation together with Werner Brandt,” Agassi said. “[On] the day of the acquisition it was basically moved to [board member] Gerhard Oswald and the sales effort for it was moved over to Apotheker.”

Damaging stuff, anyway you look at it–though this is just one side of the case. Oracle has clearly thrown and landed some roundhouse punches so far, but SAP will have its chance to counter them and throw a few of its own in due time.

Question is, will it still be standing when that time finally comes.

PREVIOUSLY:

• Your Honor, We Object to Mr. Ellison’s Repeated Use of the Term “Slimy Weasels”
• Oracle to HP CEO: Chicken!
• Oracle Vs. SAP: We Got a Right to Pick a Little Fight–Bonanza!
• SAP’s Tab in Oracle Case: $120 Million and Counting
• Gag Order Denied in Oracle, SAP Trial
• Ellison Taunts HP CEO a Second Time
• SAP to Ellison: Save the Drama for Your Mama
• Ellison to HP CEO: “Warrior, Come Out to Plaaeeay!
• SAP: Please Gag Oracle
• HP Scandal Sucks in New York Times Columnist Over Conflict of Interest
• Welch to HP Board: You Don’t Know Jack!
• Insiders Criticize Ellison For HP CEO Slam
• Was Apotheker HP’s First Choice of CEO?
• HP Names Ex-SAP Chief Apotheker as CEO

Before that, the jury will hear testimony from former Oracle co-President Charles Phillips and the deposition of former SAP chief and newly appointed Hewlett-Packard CEO Léo Apotheker, who has so far dodged Oracle’s efforts to subpoena him.

Speaking of Apotheker, sources tell me that Oracle is pretty much convinced he isn’t even in the country. “Larry predicted they’d keep him far away from HP headquarters, and that seems to be exactly what they’re doing,” one told me, adding, “It’s not like Oracle hasn’t put some effort into finding him.”

Keeping Apotheker out of Oracle’s reach is likely a wise move. It’s clear that beyond squeezing all the copyright damages it can out of SAP, Oracle’s goal in this trial is to embarrass HP for hiring him. Putting him on the stand after Ellison would just be silliness anyway–like watching someone trying to play a set of Volksmusik after the “Live at Leeds”-era Who have just left the stage strewn with broken drum heads and guitar shards.

PREVIOUSLY:

• Oracle to HP CEO: Chicken!
• Oracle Vs. SAP: We Got a Right to Pick a Little Fight–Bonanza!
• SAP’s Tab in Oracle Case: $120 Million and Counting
• Gag Order Denied in Oracle, SAP Trial
• Ellison Taunts HP CEO a Second Time
• SAP to Ellison: Save the Drama for Your Mama
• Ellison to HP CEO: “Warrior, Come Out to Plaaeeay!
• SAP: Please Gag Oracle
• HP Scandal Sucks in New York Times Columnist Over Conflict of Interest
• Welch to HP Board: You Don’t Know Jack!
• Insiders Criticize Ellison For HP CEO Slam
• Was Apotheker HP’s First Choice of CEO?
• HP Names Ex-SAP Chief Apotheker as CEO

Infor, a closely held maker of software aimed at mid-size companies, on Monday said Phillips will take over as its CEO starting Dec. 1.

The appointment comes after a bid by Phillips to become CEO of publicly traded software maker CA fell through earlier this year, after billboards publicizing his relationship with a woman other than his wife appeared in New York City and other places, people familiar with the matter have said.

Jim Schaper, Infor’s outgoing CEO, who will continue to serve as chairman, said Phillips is “a perfect fit” for Infor, which is based outside Atlanta and serves 70,000 customers globally, most of which are mid-size companies.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

One month after resigning his position at Hewlett-Packard amid allegations of business-standard improprieties, ousted HP CEO Mark Hurd has a new gig: Co-president of Oracle.

Ending a long weekend’s worth of speculation, Oracle on Monday said Hurd will serve as co-president alongside Safra Catz, taking up a role vacated by current president and fellow scandal cultivator Charles Phillips, who has evidently resigned.

“Mark did a brilliant job at HP and I expect he’ll do even better at Oracle,” Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said in statement. “There is no executive in the IT world with more relevant experience than Mark.”

Indeed, Hurd’s knowledge of HP’s (HPQ) server and data-storage-systems business will undoubtedly come in handy at Oracle (ORCL), which has been aggressively moving into that very space ever since its acquisition of Sun. In that sense, Hurd’s hiring is a real coup for Oracle. Who better to put the screws to a rival than a former CEO with a bone to pick?

Perhaps that’s what Larry Ellison was thinking when he spanked HP for canning Hurd. “The HP board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs  many years ago,” he said at the time. “That decision nearly destroyed Apple and would have if Steve hadn’t come back and saved them.”

Remarking on Oracle’s acquisition plans at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech 2010 conference last week, Phillips said, “If you look forward for the next five years, we’ll probably double what we’ve spent on acquisitions in the last five years….If things hold up, we could easily do that.” He added that the company is particularly interested in vertical business-software firms as well as hardware firms. “There’s plenty left to do,” he noted.

That may be so, but Oracle (ORCL) would prefer not to be known as the company planning to do it. In a hastily issued statement, Oracle “clarified” Phillips’s comments, insisting its acquisition strategy remains unchanged. “Oracle does not have a five-year acquisition budget,” said spokeswoman Karen Tillman. “We don’t even have a one-year acquisition budget. While it is highly unlikely that we will spend anything approaching $70 billion in five years, we will be opportunistic and, if market conditions warrant, we will buy additional companies that further our strategic goals and address our customers’ needs.”

Hard to believe that a company as aggressively acquisitive as Oracle doesn’t have an M&A budget, but evidently that’s the party line and by the sound of things, Phillips clearly overstepped it.

“The Sun integration is going even better than we expected,” said Oracle President Safra Catz. “We believe that Sun will make a significant contribution to our fourth quarter earnings per share as well as meet the profitability goals we set for next year.”

Oracle (ORCL) said its net income for the quarter fell to $1.2 billion, or 23 cents a share, from $1.3 billion, or 26 cents a share last year. But revenue rose to $6.4 billion from $5.5 billion. Excluding items, earnings for the quarter were 38 cents a share, which is what analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had been expecting.

Two last details worth noting: Revenue from new software licenses rose 13 percent during the quarter. Another sign that enterprise spending on technology is on the rise.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is a funny guy. From the company’s earnings release:

“Every quarter we grab huge chunks of market share from SAP,” said Oracle CEO, Larry Ellison. “SAP’s most recent quarter was the best quarter of their year, only down 15%, while Oracle’s application sales were up 21%. But SAP is well ahead of us in the number of CEOs for this year, announcing their third and fourth, while we only had one.”

Oracle Reports GAAP EPS of $0.23, Non-GAAP EPS of $0.38

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif., March 25, 2010 — Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) today announced fiscal 2010 Q3 GAAP total revenues were up 17% to $6.4 billion, while non- GAAP total revenues were up 18% to $6.5 billion. Excluding the impact of Sun Microsystems, Inc., which Oracle acquired on January 26, 2010, GAAP total revenue grew 7%. GAAP new software license revenues were up 13% to $1.7 billion, and up 10% to $1.7 billion excluding Sun. GAAP software license updates and product support revenues were up 13% to $3.3 billion, while non-GAAP software license updates and product support revenues were up 12% to $3.3 billion. GAAP operating income was down 5% to $1.8 billion, and GAAP operating margin was 29%. Non-GAAP operating income was up 13% to $2.9 billion, and non-GAAP operating margin was 45%. GAAP net income was down 10% to $1.2 billion, while non-GAAP net income was up 9% to $1.9 billion. GAAP earnings per share were $0.23, down 11% compared to last year while non-GAAP earnings per share were up 9% to $0.38. GAAP operating cash flow on a trailing twelve-month basis was $8.2 billion.

“Our solid top line growth, coupled with disciplined expense management, was key in generating $8.0 billion of free cash flow over the last twelve months,” said Oracle CFO Jeff Epstein.

“The Sun integration is going even better than we expected,” said Oracle President, Safra Catz. “We believe that Sun will make a significant contribution to our fourth quarter earnings per share as well as meet the profitability goals we set for next year.”

“Exadata is the fastest growing product in Oracle’s history,” said Oracle President, Charles Phillips. “Introduced a little over a year ago, the Exadata pipeline is now approaching $400 million with Q4 bookings forecast at nearly $100 million. This strengthens both sales growth and profitability in our Sun server and storage businesses.”

“Every quarter we grab huge chunks of market share from SAP,” said Oracle CEO, Larry Ellison. “SAP’s most recent quarter was the best quarter of their year, only down 15%, while Oracle’s application sales were up 21%. But SAP is well ahead of us in the number of CEOs for this year, announcing their third and fourth, while we only had one.”
In addition, Oracle’s Board of Directors declared a cash dividend of $0.05 per share of outstanding common stock to be paid to stockholders of record as of the close of business on April 14, 2010, with a payment date of May 5, 2010. Future declarations of quarterly dividends and the establishment of future record and payment dates are subject to the final determination of Oracle’s Board of Directors.

“I had an 8 ½-year serious relationship with YaVaughnie Wilkins,” Phillips said in a statement. “My divorce proceedings began in 2008. The relationship with Ms. Wilkins has since ended and we both wish each other well.”

The statement comes days after several mysterious billboards popped up, which have since been spotted in New York, San Francisco and Atlanta.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

With the naming of Oracle (ORCL) President Charles Phillips to President Barack Obama’s 16-Member Economic Recovery Advisory Board a few days ago, another Silicon Valley tech mandarin fell off the list to become America’s first chief technology officer.

The job–which was promised by President Barack Obama during his campaign and underscored when he released a memorandum on transparency and open government that outlined some of the CTO duties the day after he was sworn in–remains unfilled.

In fact, so does the Federal Communications Commission chairman’s post, which insiders said a month ago would go to former IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI) exec Julius Genachowski. But he has not been nominated yet.

Both Genachowski and Phillips were on a short list floated in November by The Wall Street Journal for CTO. The third name on it, Level 3 (LVLT) exec Don Gips, has since been named to a high-level White House job.

While the continuing economic crisis has sucked all the oxygen from the room, the Obama administration has still made a lot of promises about tech issues, from improving broadband to making the government more transparent and digital.

So, who is getting the job as head geek?

Could it be well-known entrepreneur Mitch Kapor? Google (GOOG) guru-in-resident and Internet father Vint Cerf? Or some other tech-savvy Silicon Valley figure?

BoomTown is, of course, rooting for Steve “Woz” Wozniak. Once he wins “Dancing With the Stars” this season, he will be the only nerd capable of the two-stepping one needs to survive in Washington.

Post new guesses in comments below.

And, until someone is appointed to fix the nation’s computers, here is the Jan. 21 memo Obama released about some of the tasks ahead for America’s CTO:

MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES

BARACK OBAMA

[Photo of the t-shirt from ThinkGeek.]

In a letter to BEA late Tuesday night, Oracle President Charles Phillips rejected, with barely restrained incredulity, BEA’s proposed acquisition price of $21 per share. “We believe that your counterproposal at $21 per share price is an impossibly high price for Oracle or any other potential acquirer,” Phillips wrote. “At $21 per share, the BEA board is asking for an 80% premium to BEA’s stock price before the appearance of activist shareholders who are pushing the BEA board to sell the company. The $21 per share price is a multiple of nearly 11 times BEA’s last 12 months reported maintenance revenues. Nobody would seriously consider paying that kind of multiple for a software company with shrinking new license sales. Furthermore, no other company has come forward to bid for BEA. Our proposal at $17 per share is the only offer. Apparently no other companies think that BEA is worth $17 per share, let alone $21 per share. Accordingly, we repeat our proposal to purchase BEA at $17 per share, a price that we are unwilling to increase. We do not believe BEA is worth more than that and we have an obligation to our own shareholders to exercise price discipline when evaluating acquisition opportunities.”

“Nobody would seriously consider paying that kind of multiple.” Suffice to say, that little barb did not go over well at BEA, which rejected Oracle’s $6.7 billion takeover offer a third time this morning. “As fiduciaries, our board cannot endorse a proposal that it has concluded significantly undervalues BEA,” William Klein, BEA’s vice president of business planning and development, said in a letter to Phillips. “We therefore assume that your proposal will expire on Oct. 28.”

In a letter to BEA late Tuesday night, Oracle President Charles Phillips rejected, with barely restrained incredulity, BEA’s proposed acquisition price of $21 per share. “We believe that your counterproposal at $21 per share price is an impossibly high price for Oracle or any other potential acquirer,” Phillips wrote. “At $21 per share, the BEA board is asking for an 80% premium to BEA’s stock price before the appearance of activist shareholders who are pushing the BEA board to sell the company. The $21 per share price is a multiple of nearly 11 times BEA’s last 12 months reported maintenance revenues. Nobody would seriously consider paying that kind of multiple for a software company with shrinking new license sales. Furthermore, no other company has come forward to bid for BEA. Our proposal at $17 per share is the only offer. Apparently no other companies think that BEA is worth $17 per share, let alone $21 per share. Accordingly, we repeat our proposal to purchase BEA at $17 per share, a price that we are unwilling to increase. We do not believe BEA is worth more than that and we have an obligation to our own shareholders to exercise price discipline when evaluating acquisition opportunities.”

“Nobody would seriously consider paying that kind of multiple.” Suffice to say, that little barb did not go over well at BEA, which rejected Oracle’s $6.7 billion takeover offer a third time this morning. “As fiduciaries, our board cannot endorse a proposal that it has concluded significantly undervalues BEA,” William Klein, BEA’s vice president of business planning and development, said in a letter to Phillips. “We therefore assume that your proposal will expire on Oct. 28.”

You have to take a broader view and realize this is an industry like any other–telecom, railroads. They went through consolidation. Why shouldn’t the computer industry be any different? This shouldn’t have been a surprise to anybody. But it seemed to be, and a lot of people thought I was nuts when I said these things. And that’s why we’re out there alone as a consolidator.”

–Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, Forbes magazine, July 2006

Will BEA Systems go down in history as the place where the Ellisonian consolidation wave sweeping the business-software market finally broke and rolled back? Not likely, but at the moment it’s doing a passable job of holding it back. This week the company rejected Oracle’s $17-per-share, unsolicited takeover offer for the second time, refusing even to meet with the company to discuss it.

And so Oracle is turning up the heat a bit. In a letter to BEA’s board, Oracle President Charles Phillips said it will walk away from its proposal if BEA doesn’t accept it or put it before shareholders for a vote.

Dear Members of the Board of Directors:

“Last night we were told by Bill Klein, Vice President-Business Planning and Development (speaking on behalf of the board), that BEA’s board again rejected our proposed price of $17 per share in cash. The board has refused to meet with us since we made our Oct. 9 proposal.
Oracle urges the BEA board of directors to let BEA’s shareholders decide: sign an acquisition agreement with Oracle and allow the shareholders to vote. Oracle believes that our $17 per share price is generous and there are no offers for BEA above $17 per share. $17 per share represents:

• a 21% premium to BEA’s closing price of $14.05 on the date before we
  made our proposal;

• a 31.5% premium to $12.93, the 52-week average before our proposal;
• a 44% premium to $11.77, BEA’s stock price on the date immediately
  prior to the date that activist shareholders disclosed their position
  in BEA; and

• a price higher than BEA’s five-year high before our proposal.

“Oracle has no interest in a long, drawn-out process to acquire BEA. If the BEA board refuses to execute an acquisition agreement and refuses to let their shareholders vote, then our $17-per-share proposal to acquire BEA will expire at 5 p.m. PDT, on Sunday, Oct. 28.

Sincerely,

ORACLE CORPORATION

Interesting move, eh? More so given its impact on BEA’s share price today. Prior to Oracle’s offer, BEA was trading at $14.05 per share. After it, the stock hit $18.58. This morning, it’s trading at $17.98–down 3.28% on fears that Oracle will rescind its offer.

You have to take a broader view and realize this is an industry like any other–telecom, railroads. They went through consolidation. Why shouldn’t the computer industry be any different? This shouldn’t have been a surprise to anybody. But it seemed to be, and a lot of people thought I was nuts when I said these things. And that’s why we’re out there alone as a consolidator.”

–Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, Forbes magazine, July 2006

Will BEA Systems go down in history as the place where the Ellisonian consolidation wave sweeping the business-software market finally broke and rolled back? Not likely, but at the moment it’s doing a passable job of holding it back. This week the company rejected Oracle’s $17-per-share, unsolicited takeover offer for the second time, refusing even to meet with the company to discuss it.

And so Oracle is turning up the heat a bit. In a letter to BEA’s board, Oracle President Charles Phillips said it will walk away from its proposal if BEA doesn’t accept it or put it before shareholders for a vote.

Dear Members of the Board of Directors:

“Last night we were told by Bill Klein, Vice President-Business Planning and Development (speaking on behalf of the board), that BEA’s board again rejected our proposed price of $17 per share in cash. The board has refused to meet with us since we made our Oct. 9 proposal.
Oracle urges the BEA board of directors to let BEA’s shareholders decide: sign an acquisition agreement with Oracle and allow the shareholders to vote. Oracle believes that our $17 per share price is generous and there are no offers for BEA above $17 per share. $17 per share represents:

• a 21% premium to BEA’s closing price of $14.05 on the date before we
  made our proposal;

• a 31.5% premium to $12.93, the 52-week average before our proposal;
• a 44% premium to $11.77, BEA’s stock price on the date immediately
  prior to the date that activist shareholders disclosed their position
  in BEA; and

• a price higher than BEA’s five-year high before our proposal.

“Oracle has no interest in a long, drawn-out process to acquire BEA. If the BEA board refuses to execute an acquisition agreement and refuses to let their shareholders vote, then our $17-per-share proposal to acquire BEA will expire at 5 p.m. PDT, on Sunday, Oct. 28.

Sincerely,

ORACLE CORPORATION

Interesting move, eh? More so given its impact on BEA’s share price today. Prior to Oracle’s offer, BEA was trading at $14.05 per share. After it, the stock hit $18.58. This morning, it’s trading at $17.98–down 3.28% on fears that Oracle will rescind its offer.