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Larry goes shopping...

14K views 11 replies 5 participants last post by  pesto 
#1 ·
Why not a thread about the obsessively acquisitive Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle?

From super yachts to PeopleSoft; islands in Hawaii to $100 million Japanese gardens; Malibu castles to America's Cups, Larry just can't stop himself from buying whatever strikes his trophy hunting fancy. And now there's Salesforce.com...???



























 
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#5 ·
Why not a thread about the obsessively acquisitive Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle?

From super yachts to PeopleSoft; islands in Hawaii to $100 million Japanese gardens; Malibu castles to America's Cups, Larry just can't stop himself from buying whatever strikes his trophy hunting fancy. And now there's Salesforce.com...???
No, there's not. First of all, that would entail some humility on Larry's part: An admission he can't do the cloud organically. And humility is a trait he doesn't possess. Second, he sees himself as in some sort of contest with Salesforce, repeatedly telling attendees at Oracle conference calls that Oracle is on the edge of dominating the cloud space and putting the likes of Salesforce in its place. He would have to eat crow and he does NOT like crow.

Frankly, I think IBM or Microsoft fit the bill for Salesforce: Two giants with lots of cash who have lost their way and aren't embarrassed about admitting they need to buy their way into a new endeavor. And there have been plenty of recent reports of Salesforce CEO Benioff consorting with MSFT execs.

On the other hand, last night on CNBC's "Fast Money" Guy Adami argued that IBM stock has been trading better than for the last several years recently and acts as if someone knows something is up. He speculated that something is Salesforce.

Finally, today trading in Salesforce was halted briefly for a rumor being spread by Bloomberg that an offer from MSFT was under discussion. Salesforce stock was up sharply on a very down day.

Larry was probably laying on some beach in Hawaii or the deck of a yacht.
 
#6 ·
A nice collection of rumors. And, who know, if you shoot enough on the wall, something will stick.

Larry DOES NOT have ego issues; in any event, the Oracle Board runs the company and their management is strong enough so that Larry takes their advice regularly and is often convinced by them that his ideas are bad. This can be found in the press and in the several Ellison biographies.

In general, the driver will be the expected effect on earnings of combining the two companies, which is a long, technical analysis. My guess is that it will be tough to find a scenario where this works for any of these companies, but IBM and MS could be desperate enough to take a shot.

In any event, the decisions are not based on analyses contained in a sound bite or two dropped in business talk shows or press releases. And for sure they're not based on gossip, ego or pettiness.
 
#12 ·
Well, Larry has taken his shopping cart (and toothbrush and pajamas) out of his Malibu and Silicon Valley homes and onto Lanai. He never did buy a sports team or Salesforce.com (which legally could not have happened, but that's another story).

We may have to move this thread to the Hawaii or Texas thread. lol.
 
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