September 23rd, 2009
Ellison wants to model new Oracle after T.J. Watson Jr.'s IBM
At a Churchhill Club event, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison talked to former Sun Microsystems President Ed Zander about Oracle’s recent acquisition of Sun Microsystems. He said he’d like to pattern the new Oracle after T.J. Watson Jr.’s IBM, combining both hardware and software systems.
Ellison said that he wanted Oracle to be Watson’s IBM because that version of Big Blue was the dominant software company relative to the versions run by 
Lou Gerstner and Sam Palmisano. IBM in Watson’s heyday used software to create a hardware giant. Simply put, IBM was the backbone of Corporate America. “IBM was the environment you worked in,” said Ellison. Ellison said Oracle wants to do the same and be the dominant systems environment for enterprises, running airline, banking and telecommunications systems.
It’s an interesting take worth watching as you put the Oracle-Sun deal into perspective. Ellison’s riff on how Sun is a national treasure is a bit of a stretch, but you can see what Oracle’s master plan is.
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.
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