April 28th, 2009
What would Larry Ellison do with Microsoft (it wouldn't be Vine)
The blogosphere is abuzz with the latest creation from Microsoft—Vine, a Twitter meets Facebook messaging system (Techmeme).
The big question: Would Larry Ellison do this? Answer: Nope. Vine—and a lot of other Microsoft businesses (MSN, Xbox to name a few) take away from the real goal of making money.
That “if Ellison ran Microsoft” thread was posted by John Potter on his MobKool blog. John is our resident tech guru at ZDNet/TechRepublic/BNet/MoneyWatch. He writes:
I woke up this morning to hear the news that Microsoft was launching a competitor to Twitter. In my mind, I can’t help but juxtapose that story with the news from last week that Oracle is buying Sun. Now, I’m not a big fan of Larry Ellison. I still have bitter memories from the 90s when my wife’s raise was held up, because Larry had to approve it, and he was off yacht racing. But, you have to admire the way that he approaches his business. I never have any questions about what Oracle is doing. Larry knows what Oracle is about: Enterprise Software. He has a vision of where the market is going: a few big players. And, he has a strategy to make Oracle the dominant player in this new world: buy up key technologies; offer the complete Enterprise stack. Once you understand Larry’s vision, you can understand and justify every move Oracle has made.
Now, contrast that with Microsoft. Ballmer doesn’t know what the company is about. Is it focused on the desktop, games, internet, enterprise? Who knows? He doesn’t have a coherent vision of where all these markets are going. Who could? As a result, Ballmer doesn’t have a coherent strategy. He’s attempting to do everything; and he’s doing nothing well…
That riff has my vote for thought of the day.
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.
Subscribe to Between the Lines via Email alerts or RSS.
| 04/28/09
