Larry Ellison Cracks Me Up

Image via CrunchBaseReuters: Oracle enlists private eyes to find HP CEO

Oracle Corp has hired private investigators to track down Hewlett-Packard CEO Leo Apotheker, believing testimony by the former SAP chief will help its efforts to claim about $4 billion in damages for software theft .... Oracle has subpoenaed Apotheker -- who began his job only last Monday -- but HP has refused to accept the subpoena, saying the U.S. software corporation is trying to harass him. .... their new chief, whose appointment surprised Wall Street and Silicon Valley ..... Oracle and Europe's top software maker are engaged in a legal battle that has transfixed Silicon Valley ...... Apotheker's lawyers at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher also 
Image via CrunchBaserefused to accept the subpoena. If he is overseas, Oracle will be unable to serve him and have to await his arrival in California

I can see the point behind the lawsuit. SAP admitted guilt a long time ago. And I can see why Apothepo needs to be deposed. I guess I even see the point in hiring detectives. But it does get quite dramatic at that point. That hiring detectives part is signature Larry Ellison.

SAP grills Oracle as Apotheker absent from trial Larry Ellison testified that SAP's theft of its software cost his company $4 billion, doubling his previous estimate ..... Silicon Valley's richest man .... The normally brash, outspoken Ellison left the courtroom on Monday without speaking to reporters. ..... The two software companies, which together dominate the global market for software that helps businesses run more efficiently, are slugging it out in court .... a black mock-turtleneck and suit and using glasses at times to read documents .... One showed the jury an email from Oracle Chairman Jeff Henley stating that TomorrowNow was not a threat. .... "That's not what I believe. But that's what he said," Ellison told the packed courtroom. ... HP has declined to say whether Apotheker is working out of the company's Palo Alto, California, headquarters or one of its other offices scattered across the globe. ..... Ellison began his testimony by saying Oracle would come close to going out of business if his company's software was not protected by copyright laws. Oracle spends several billions of dollars a year on product development. .... "We'd have a hard time paying 100,000 employees," he told the jury of eight men and women. ....... Oracle could have charged SAP $4 billion to license the programs that were wrongfully downloaded, he said. ...... Ellison has claimed that TomorrowNow could have taken 20 percent to 30 percent of the customers for its PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards brands of business management software.
Image via CrunchBase

Related articles

• Larry Is Not Done Yet (technbiz.blogspot.com)
• Exclusive: Oracle enlists private eyes to find HP CEO (reuters.com)
• SAP grills Oracle as Apotheker absent from trial (reuters.com)
• Ellison: Oracle has $4 billion case against SAP (sfgate.com)
• Oracle Might Have Lost Thousands of Clients to SAP, Ellison Says (businessweek.com)
• Licensing Fees the Main Topic of Oracle Testimony (nytimes.com)
• SAP Might Have Taken More Oracle Clients, Ellison Says (businessweek.com)
• Oracle Lawyer Defends Efforts To Subpoena H-P's CEO (blogs.wsj.com)
• UPDATE 2-SAP grills Oracle, Apotheker absent from trial (reuters.com)
• Oracle's Ellison Testifies that SAP's Infringement Cost It $4 Billion (blogs.wsj.com) the “Tech Trial of the Century.” .... Ellison said Oracle could have lost as much as 30% of the customers it had gotten from its acquisitions of PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards. Oracle could have also lost as much as 20% of customers from its Siebel Systems acquisition, Ellison said. “SAP is the number one application vendor in the world,” Ellison told the court. “They could make a credible offer to our customers.” ..... Ellison shot back: “I do not write those sorts of things down.”