Oracle Calls Out Autonomy CEO

[mikeryan]

Back Story (since I apparently missed it)

HP is buying Autonomy for 10+B. Many analysts feel this is over priced, and on Oracle's earnings call Larry Ellison couldn't help but get a jab in at HP by saying that they (Mark Hurd ironically) told Autonomy they were overpriced at their current 6+B Market Cap when Autonomy went to Oracle looking for a suitor.

Autonomy CEO then said "WTF we never talked to Oracle about being purchased".

Then this.

[smoyer]

Thanks ... Though it appears the real story is that the sandbox isn't big for both of them and now they're throwing sand in each other's eyes.

[darksaga]

I thought the fact the meeting took place on April 1st was entertaining. Maybe Hurd missed the joke?

[eftpotrm]

I forget where, but I once read an article suggesting that one of the big problems Microsoft has faced in the past 10 years is that, after the DoJ suit and the ruling of it as an abusive monopoly by Judge Jackson, they missed out on a lot of good new developers simply because they didn't want to work for that sort of company.

I don't think my opinions of Larry Ellison had been high for some time, but recent actions and publishing this sort of press release hardly raises them. Perhaps this will be the final downfall of Oracle; that their reputation in the tech community so precedes them that they run out of willing labour and / or partners?

[CaptainZapp]

While I agree with your general assessment I disagree with your conclusion.

See, Oracle is not (and never was) a technology company. They are a huge marketing and sales organisation that happens to dabble in technology products.

The carnage of Sun top engineers after the takeover should tell us something.

That said, I think it's a dumb, childish and immature move.

2 Minutes of LOL and gufaw! As a believer in kharma (in the metaphorical sense) I think that will come back and bite.Messrs. Hurd and Ellison.

[toyg]

Do you really think Larry cares about what some uppity yankee hipster thinks about his company? These days, a lot (most?) of Oracle software is built in India, Eastern Europe, etc. Developers in those countries don't care about this sort of things, they care about the cold hard cash Oracle have in their coffers, which they get by selling products over geeks' heads (i.e. to their bosses' boss).

Wage inflation in developing countries is much more of a problem for Larry than "boardroom etiquette".

[DrJokepu]

This is incredibly juvenile and unprofessional. Start acting like grownups.

[tptacek]

Ellison knows it's juvenile and unprofessional and does not care. That is his schtick.

[5hoom]

Agreed. This is a really weird press release for Oracle to serve from their flagship website. Even the Notch v Bethesda back & forth was orders of magnitude more civil…

[forgotAgain]

Possible scenario for Oracle actions:

A) ridicule HP into dropping Autonomy bid

B) because of A the stock price of HP drops significantly

C) Oracle buys HP

D) Mark Hurd gets his HP executive washroom key back.

[toyg]

What about this? (not a joke) A) ridicule HP into dropping Autonomy bid B) because of A, the stock price of Autonomy crashes C) Oracle buys Autonomy D) Mike Lynch gets fired

[spinchange]

E) HP keeps PSG in house and backs off Enterprise software and services.

[rbanffy]

> A) ridicule HP into dropping Autonomy bid

I don't think Oracle would do anything to benefit HP

[phillmv]

The most interesting thing about this story is just how poor that Powerpoint presentation is.

It's professionally put together, but if I someone tried to use these as slides during a presentation I'd want to tear my eyes out.

[bennylope]

It's classic consulting/finance style, typically meant to be read as a document (a "leave behind") rather than presented on a screen.

This does not stop consultants from presenting such decks. And yes, those presentations will make you want to tear your eyes out.

[haasted]

Other HN discussion on the same topic : http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3051366

[X-Istence]

If only Mr. Lynch had just come out and said, "yes, we also went to Oracle to see if they might be interested". Then he would have had much less trouble =)

[marcf]

Why does Oracle care so much about this? Autonomy shopped themselves around and Oracle turned them down. Now Oracle wants to hurt Autonomy because a competitor bought them. I guess all is fair in M&A, but this just seems like a stupid spat.

[reefab]

I'm guessing it's mostly Mark Hurd (Oracle president and ex-HP CEO) trying to look good by pointing out that he did refuse to buy Autonomy because the price he was discussing with them was overpriced in his opinion whereas HP bought them for almost twice the price.

It's basically Mark Hurd getting back at HP in the most pathetic way I've ever seen.

[itswindy]

I remember reading that Ellison takes a lot of things personally .

[headbiznatch]

The funniest part of the press release for me is the "About Oracle" section:

"Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) is the world's most complete, open, and integrated business software and hardware systems company."

Put it on every release, it will become true? Or something?

[MaysonL]

Of course, if you look at the other side of the story, Oracle is said to be tossing lots of BS here.

See: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/sep/29/autonomy-orac...

Slides prepared by Qatalyst in January, meeting between Autonomy and Hurd as an introduction, not a sales pitch.

[j_col]

From the statement:

> Mr. Lynch then accused of Oracle of being ‘inaccurate’. Either Mr. Lynch has a very poor memory or he’s lying.

Wow, things are really getting dirty between Oracle, HP, and Autonomy. Wonder will this affect HP's embattled share price further?

[tybris]

It seems that things always get pretty dirty when Oracle is involved, but maybe they're just being honest.

[protomyth]

I pretty much expect this would be Oracle's response, they tend not to let others have the last word on such things.

It is pretty interesting to me that during the SPARC SuperCluster event, Ellison did not mention HP, but instead focussed heavily on IBM's server.

[goodweeds]

It appears that Oracle has been taking PR lessons from Michael Arrington.

[freejack]

I find it ridiculous that companies operating at this level waste their time with things like this when they clearly have bigger issues on their hands. No wonder Oracle is struggling if this is where they are focused.

[amac]

Is Oracle struggling? They certainly aren't struggling to make profit.