Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is famous for his admiration of “The Art of War,” Sun Tzu’s sixth-century treatise on battle tactics. And the ancient wisdom has served Ellison well in Oracle’s long-running battle with SAP and its hostile bid for PeopleSoft. But it may get him in trouble when it comes to Oracle’s dealings with the European Commission and its inquiry into the company’s planned acquisition of Sun. The Financial Times reports that Oracle’s refusal to offer any concessions to European antitrust regulators may lead them to issue a formal complaint objecting to the deal.
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“We always said 2009 would be a tough year.” SAP CEO Léo Apotheker made that remark during the company’s third-quarter earnings call today and, sadly, SAP’s worse-than-expected performance and reduced forecast for the year would seem to bear him out.
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Though it reported a 13 percent increase in fourth-quarter profit that was comfortably ahead of market expectations, SAP plans to step up its cost-cutting in the coming year. The German business software provider will sack some 3,000 employees in the months ahead.
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Goldman Sachs published its “Americas: 2009 Software Outlook” report today and it’s as dismal and ugly a forecast as you’d expect, given the current economic climate.
Of course, as ugly as it was, it could have been worse.
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Thank God for IBM. The technology bellwether gave battered investors a chance to catch their breath Thursday after it said it expects to report a 20 percent increase in net income for its third quarter and, remarkably, claimed its profit outlook for the full year remains on track.
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Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff wasn’t kidding when he said in May of 2007, “We’re the Google of business.” The customer-relationship software pioneer this morning announced an alliance with Google that will see it integrating Google’s online services into the Salesforce.com platform.
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“The business-intelligence space is undergoing massive changes. Oracle’s acquisition of Hyperion was the first domino to fall. SAP’s deal with Business Objects is the second one. Now the question is, which will be the next domino to fall,” Gartner VP Andreas Bitterer asked last month. Answer: Cognos.
In a year during which Hyperion was [...]
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Well, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison must be chuckling into his corn flakes this morning …
In January 2005, Oracle President Charles Phillips boasted that his company soon would be “seeing the whites of” SAP’s eyes. Well, it’s taken a bit longer than expected, but today it seems Oracle is doing just that.
Responding to a lawsuit filed [...]
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Will Oracle’s latest multimillion-dollar acquisition diminish CEO Larry Ellison’s appetite for business-software makers? Hard to say, now that the company has ticked off most of the companies on its April 2003 list of acquisition targets and begun ordering off the regular menu. During the past three years, Oracle has spent more than $20 billion on [...]
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