Oracle CEO is back to basics

Lisa Baertlein

SAN FRANCISCO: The most compelling remark by Oracle Corp. co-founder and
Chief Executive Larry Ellison at the company's annual technology conference on
Tuesday was that business at the world's No. 2 software vendor had stabilized.
What a difference a year can make!

Back in 2000 -- before the global recession and the devastating attacks of
September 11 -- Ellison's visionary musings were the highlight of Oracle's
week-long Open World conference. A year later, Ellison still has the allure to
pack a large conference hall at San Francisco's Moscone Center, but his keynote
address on Tuesday revolved around a relatively straightforward message about
how the software maker's database and business automation offerings help
companies run better, faster and cheaper.

Ellison, one of Silicon Valley's most outspoken and entertaining chiefs, was
so on message that he devoted less time than usual to knocking competitors
Microsoft Corp. and International Business Machines Corp. "I think Oracle
has realized that they have to get back to basics," Betsy Burton, a
database analyst at Gartner Inc., told Reuters. "I think it was the right
thing for them to do."

Tough times for tech

The Redwood Shores, California-based company -- like many other software
vendors -- has seen revenues fall amid a severe contraction in corporate
spending on technology. Its stock also has tumbled, losing nearly 53 per cent of
its value year-to-date. Earlier this year, the company cut prices on its core
database products amid growing competitive pressure from Microsoft and IBM.

In its fiscal first quarter ended August 31, Oracle posted
better-than-expected earnings on a slight decline in revenue. The company
recently warned that its second-quarter per-share earnings -- to be announced
December 13 -- would come in weaker than originally forecast at 1 cent to 2
cents lower than the 11-cent profit Oracle posted in the year-ago period.

"Our business has at least stabilized. It's not getting worse,"
said Ellison, whose ranking among the world's richest people has slipped to
fourth from second last year. "I personally believe that we'll start seeing
some growth next calendar year," said Ellison, who predicted Oracle's
margins would widen from current levels of between 30 per cent and 40 per cent
to a more efficient 50 per cent when the economy improves.

On other fronts, Ellison said he had shipped the free software he promised to
give the US government if it decided to aggregate citizen and non-citizen
information into one national file to be used for national security efforts.
Ellison was mum on exactly what information would be collected in the new
database. "We don't run those law enforcement agencies. We just provide
software," he quipped.

Ellison also said Oracle's recently departed Executive Vice President Jay
Nussbaum had landed at KPMG Consulting, where he is now executive vice president
for managed services and enterprise solutions.