OMEN
09-21-2007, 09:00 AM
Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison presided over his company's giant convention in San Francisco with a smile Wednesday, taking time out to recognize Oracle's 20th anniversary as a publicly traded company by ceremonially closing daily trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market from San Francisco.
Then he got down to business, unveiling new software support that will compete directly with Red Hat, the North Carolina software company that offers similar support services to businesses using the Linux operating system to run their computers.
"If you are a Red Hat Linux customer, you now have a choice," Ellison said. "You can very easily switch from Red Hat support to Oracle support. We will fix the bugs."
The service will be made available in 145 countries and in 27 languages at the basic price of $99 per system per year. The company is offering a 50 percent discount for customers who sign up by Jan. 31.
The announcement at Oracle OpenWorld, which featured four live penguins onstage in a nod to the symbol for Linux, prompted an audience member to ask during a question-and-answer session: "So what happens to Red Hat? Is killing them the unintended side effect?"
"This is capitalism," Ellison responded. "We're competing. We're offering a better product at a lower price."
As if to prove that point, Oracle played a video in which some of technology's top chief executive officers, such as Michael Dell of Dell Inc. and Paul Otellini of Intel, spoke enthusiastically of the company's Linux support package.
The frontal assault on Red Hat's business should not be surprising to anyone tracking Ellison's business career. After pioneering the database-software industry for nearly 20 years, Oracle embarked on a major buying spree in an effort to consolidate the field of players. Confronting Red Hat on its own turf is the latest front in that battle to consolidate the software industry.
Linux, an operating system, is available for free to companies and users, and is constantly being improved and modified by software developers in what is known as an open source system. It emerged as a popular alternative to more expensive and proprietary systems sold by Microsoft and Sun Microsystems.
Founded in 1993, Red Hat emerged as a strong competitor in the corporate software arena by offering technical support to businesses using Linux. By offering its own versions of Linux support, Oracle is clearly trying to capture that revenue. Red Hat could not immediately be reached for comment.
Oracle's latest offering exemplifies the company's bid to expand its portfolio of products beyond its core database software. Oracle has also been trying to expand its reach in the market for applications that businesses use to perform such tasks as managing payroll and monitoring inventory.
Last year, the company bought two of its key rivals in this arena, PeopleSoft Inc. of Pleasanton, which it acquired after a bitter takeover battle, and Siebel Systems of San Mateo.
Earlier in the day, Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz spoke at the convention attended by more than 41,000 technologists and executives.
Schwartz reiterated Sun's view that the demand for computing will only grow in the next few years.
And Santa Clara's Sun plans to cash in on what Schwartz described as a huge information technology build-out.
"We see a massive build-out," he said. "We believe the future of network computing is very bright. We're going to be focused on the future of network computing."
As for Oracle's IPO birthday party, Ellison stood with co-Presidents Safra Catz and Charles Phillips along with Nasdaq executives as the group presided over the ceremonial closing of daily trading on the electronic stock market.
"It's been an exciting 20 years," Ellison said, smiling, before thousands of OpenWorld attendees at Moscone Center.
San Francisco Chronicle
Then he got down to business, unveiling new software support that will compete directly with Red Hat, the North Carolina software company that offers similar support services to businesses using the Linux operating system to run their computers.
"If you are a Red Hat Linux customer, you now have a choice," Ellison said. "You can very easily switch from Red Hat support to Oracle support. We will fix the bugs."
The service will be made available in 145 countries and in 27 languages at the basic price of $99 per system per year. The company is offering a 50 percent discount for customers who sign up by Jan. 31.
The announcement at Oracle OpenWorld, which featured four live penguins onstage in a nod to the symbol for Linux, prompted an audience member to ask during a question-and-answer session: "So what happens to Red Hat? Is killing them the unintended side effect?"
"This is capitalism," Ellison responded. "We're competing. We're offering a better product at a lower price."
As if to prove that point, Oracle played a video in which some of technology's top chief executive officers, such as Michael Dell of Dell Inc. and Paul Otellini of Intel, spoke enthusiastically of the company's Linux support package.
The frontal assault on Red Hat's business should not be surprising to anyone tracking Ellison's business career. After pioneering the database-software industry for nearly 20 years, Oracle embarked on a major buying spree in an effort to consolidate the field of players. Confronting Red Hat on its own turf is the latest front in that battle to consolidate the software industry.
Linux, an operating system, is available for free to companies and users, and is constantly being improved and modified by software developers in what is known as an open source system. It emerged as a popular alternative to more expensive and proprietary systems sold by Microsoft and Sun Microsystems.
Founded in 1993, Red Hat emerged as a strong competitor in the corporate software arena by offering technical support to businesses using Linux. By offering its own versions of Linux support, Oracle is clearly trying to capture that revenue. Red Hat could not immediately be reached for comment.
Oracle's latest offering exemplifies the company's bid to expand its portfolio of products beyond its core database software. Oracle has also been trying to expand its reach in the market for applications that businesses use to perform such tasks as managing payroll and monitoring inventory.
Last year, the company bought two of its key rivals in this arena, PeopleSoft Inc. of Pleasanton, which it acquired after a bitter takeover battle, and Siebel Systems of San Mateo.
Earlier in the day, Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz spoke at the convention attended by more than 41,000 technologists and executives.
Schwartz reiterated Sun's view that the demand for computing will only grow in the next few years.
And Santa Clara's Sun plans to cash in on what Schwartz described as a huge information technology build-out.
"We see a massive build-out," he said. "We believe the future of network computing is very bright. We're going to be focused on the future of network computing."
As for Oracle's IPO birthday party, Ellison stood with co-Presidents Safra Catz and Charles Phillips along with Nasdaq executives as the group presided over the ceremonial closing of daily trading on the electronic stock market.
"It's been an exciting 20 years," Ellison said, smiling, before thousands of OpenWorld attendees at Moscone Center.
San Francisco Chronicle