Oracle bullish on India despite war gloom

BEIJING: Bio-technology is going to be the next big thing in Silicon Valley.

In fact, it is expected to drive the Silicon Valley Larry J Ellison, the founder

of Oracle Corp. He was delivering the keynote address at the OracleWorld 2002,

which started today at the Chinese capital of Beijing. He said that the Silicon

Valley was changing and changing fast. "Stronger companies are getting

stronger and weaker companies are disappearing. There will be very few

technology infrastructure companies left five years from now. They are all dying

in the Silicon Valley - I2, Ariba, Commerce One - all are dying", he added.






The highlight of Ellison's one hour keynote was his customary swipes at
Microsoft. Indulging in his customary Bill Gates and Microsoft bashing, Ellison

was at his sarcastic best when he said, "Microsoft is developing .Mandarin

(just like .Net) which will be sold at a very low cost to China. All you have to

do is pay a penny everytime you have a conversation in Mandarin language."






Ellison on India



One question, which has been intriguing everybody is the fact that Ellison

has never visited India. Whereas, this is his second visit to China. On being

asked about this anomaly, Ellison said that he would love to come to India, for

he believes it is a fascinating country. "I love Indian food and I go to

Indian restaurants regularly."






He added that Oracle is committed to India and has invested huge amounts of
money in engineering. "Yes, symbols are important, for other top CEOs like

Gates, Michael Dell, John Chambers and Carly Fiorina have come to India, but I

am deeply committed to the Indian venture where we have close to 2,000

employees."






On a comparison between China and India, his response was most uncharacteristic,
"Do I love my daughter or son more? Both countries are locomotives of

growth. Oracle doesn't have a foreign policy and we don't play favorites."



Referring to the probability of war between India and Pakistan and the resultant
crisis on the Indian border, Ellison said, "War has not changed our

opinion. We are bullish on India. We haven't changed our investment plans at

all. We will continue to invest and grow. Oracle is in India to stay--crisis or

no crisis."

Talking about .Net strategy of Microsoft, he said, it is not a standard.

".Net is a proprietary property of one company which is largely owned by

one person."






Ellison went to explain that the world is divided into two camps. One camp is
based on Internet standards like Java where innovation could occur anywhere in

the world. The other camp is represented by one and only company which is the

personal property of one person. "Microsoft thinks that the Net belongs to

them. So, who will choose a system which belongs to one person."






Referring to the often hyped up personality clash between him and Bill Gates,
Ellison said, "It is not between me and Bill. I have never viewed it as a

personal battle between me and Bill. It's just that I am on the side of the

humankind."






Ellison said, "I would love to see Oracle become the largest software
company in the world. In any case, we are the largest company in the world

developing software on open standards. We are the largest software company in

the world based on Internet standards. We are more profitable than all other

enterprise software companies put together."






Being held in China for the first time, Oracle World is specifically tailored to
meet the needs of Asian businesses, highlighting the latest developments and

product offerings for Oracle's e-business suite of applications and Oracle 9i

platform technology. Being held from June 11 to 14, the event has attracted more

than 5,000 delegates and close to 200 journalists from 14 countries in

Asia-Pacific. There are a total of 1,100 partners participating and also 36

exhibit partners. It was inaugurated by Tang Long, Deputy Secretary General,

Beijing Municipal Govt.